Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has recorded a commanding win in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, according to preliminary election results, although it appears to have missed the seats needed to govern alone.
The state election commission’s interim figures put the AfD on 43.8% of the vote, well ahead of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which received 17.2%. The result was more than double the AfD’s score in the previous state election in 2021.
Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s leading figure in Saxony-Anhalt, described the outcome as “sensational” and said the party wanted to begin governing as soon as possible. Addressing supporters, he called the vote a wider signal for Germany. The party’s joint national leaders, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, also celebrated as projections emerged.
Majority remains out of reach
Despite its lead, the AfD was projected to take 39 seats in the 83-member state parliament, below the 42 required for an outright majority. That seat estimate had not been confirmed in the preliminary results.
Siegmund has so far ruled out heading a minority government, although the party’s national leadership considers that a possible option. He said he could work with individual lawmakers or another party, and suggested fresh elections could follow if governing arrangements could not be made.
Attention is likely to focus on the left-wing populist BSW, which narrowly entered the state parliament and is expected to secure five seats. The BSW has positions on migration and Russian gas that overlap in some respects with the AfD, and has left open the possibility of co-operating with it on certain issues. Other parties have refused coalition agreements with the AfD under a political firewall intended to keep the far right out of government.
Control of a state government would be significant for the AfD, giving it influence over areas including policing, local education and culture. No far-right party has taken control of a German state since World War Two. Saxony-Anhalt, which has a population of about 2.1 million, is one of the AfD’s eastern strongholds. The state branch is classified by domestic intelligence as “right-wing extremist”, an assessment rejected by Siegmund.
Reactions underline national significance
Turnout reached 77.8%, and supporters at the AfD’s election-night event in Magdeburg cheered as the scale of the victory became clear. CDU state leader Sven Schulze conceded the AfD’s win after his party’s vote fell by more than half compared with the last election. The Social Democrats called the result “truly dramatic”, while national leader Lars Klingbeil said it was a message that Berlin should heed.
The vote also prompted reactions beyond Germany. US President Donald Trump shared a screenshot of a German television projection on Truth Social, while Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev praised the AfD’s result. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk condemned celebrations over the outcome.
The AfD leads national opinion polls ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s ruling conservatives and the Social Democrats, according to the report, but its strongest support is in eastern Germany. It also won the 2024 state election in neighbouring Thuringia, though it did not obtain enough seats there to take power.
Source: BBC News
