According to the 46-year-old politician, his party convinced him to challenge Merkel at the next Bundestag election.
"It is, of course, extremely appealing to compete with the German Chancellor right here in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern," Holm told Sputnik Germany. "It will definitely be fun."
According to the politician, Merkel is rapidly losing popularity among the country's residents, especially due to her unsuccessful open-door policy toward migrants. The politician pointed out that the German Chancellor is responsible for hundreds of thousands of unregistered migrants arriving in Germany without any control, a trend that raised serious security concerns among the German population.
"We have to change all that," Holm said. "We need a candidate who is able to defend his position," he added.
Germany is due to hold parliamentary elections in the fall next year. Angela Merkel, who has been ruling the country for three terms in a row, announced in late November her intention to join the fight for the fourth one.
However, Merkel's position on the immigration issue raised discontent across the country and contributed to the rising popularity of right-wing parties, like AfD.
In September 2016, AfD received 20.8% of the vote in regional parliamentary elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, ranking second ahead of Merkel's CDU party.
Next year, AfD looks forward to transforming its local successes into the federal level victory with the party projected to enter the German Federal Bundestag, where the parliament is seated, as the third largest party.
