AfD’s parliamentary spokesperson Jörg Meuthen welcomed the end of what he called the “Jamaica experiment” amid speculation Germany could face fresh elections as early as next Easter.
He hailed the success of his party in preventing Angela Merkel from easily forming a coalition and said he was looking forward to the prospect of another vote.
Mr Meuthen said: “The end of the Jamaica experiment is good news for our country.
“For now, Germans will be spared a coalition with the Greens, and the Chancellor’s reign should come to an end.”
The professor of political economy and finance predicted a swift end for Angela Merkel’s political career as talks collapsed and new elections loomed.
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Mrs Merkel’s CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, were attempting to form a three-way ruling coalition with the liberal-right FDP and left-wing Green Party.
However the FDP walked out on coalition talks after parties failed to agree on key issues including immigration and Europe – a move which Mr Meuthen stipulates was planned in advance.
He said: “As new elections are no longer ruled out, Mrs Merkel no longer has much hope of her Chancellorship lasting another four years.
“Mrs Merkel’s only hope is for new elections with a fundamentally different outcome in her favour – but nobody in their right mind believes this will happen. Even in the CDU she will hardly be able to convince anyone.
“Therefore, new elections with her as leader would be a waste of time, money, and above all, reputation.
“In other words, it’s likely Merkel will soon be out.”
Mr Meuthen claimed the AfD could take credit for the collapse of negotiations after its hugely increased vote share took seats from the CDU and made it harder to form a majority government.
He said: “Our barnstorming electoral success was at the negotiators’ backs.”
This, he said, made a CSU compromise on immigration politically untenable, while the FDP realised it had only just re-entered parliament and could not afford to compromise its own platform lest it lose all its seats again.
He also hit out on immigration, AfD’s main policy platform, claiming the CDU/CSU promise to cap immigration at 200,000 would have been swiftly abandoned in an alliance with the Greens.
AfD has made clear it relishes the prospect of new elections in Germany.
On Monday its co-leader Dr Alice Weidel said: “Merkel is finished. This shows that the AfD works because we prevented a black and green government [with the CDU/CSU and Greens].
“That’s the clear result here, and we’re preparing ourselves to be a rational opposition party in the Bundestag.”
She continued: “We’re looking forward to it, and we’re looking forward to potential snap elections.”
AfD currently has 94 seats in the German parliament, known as the Bundestag, and hopes to make further gains in another election.