The far-right Alternative for Germany won a historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt's state election on Sunday, September 6, according to projections and an advanced partial count, but remained just short of the seats needed to govern alone. Public broadcasters put the AfD above 44 percent, far ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union at about 18 percent, making the result a major shift in German regional politics.
Official state election data showed that more than 2,500 of 2,660 electoral districts had reported late Sunday, while El País calculated 39 seats for the AfD in a chamber where 42 would constitute an absolute majority. The figures remained provisional as counting continued, especially around the five-percent threshold that determines whether smaller parties enter parliament and can alter the final distribution of seats.
AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund described the outcome as historic and said it sent a message to the federal government in Berlin. Incumbent state premier Sven Schulze acknowledged a disastrous result for the CDU and congratulated the AfD on becoming the strongest force. The CDU had led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years and won 37.1 percent in the previous state election in 2021.
The AfD entered the vote seeking Germany's first far-right-led state government since World War II. Its Saxony-Anhalt branch is classified by the state domestic intelligence agency as a proven right-wing extremist organization, a designation the party rejects. National and regional CDU officials repeated that they would not cooperate with the AfD, preserving the political firewall that mainstream parties have maintained around it.
The final balance may depend on whether the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance clears five percent and wins representation. El País reported that late projections placed the party narrowly above the threshold and potentially able to support Siegmund's investiture, while AP said the AfD was at least marginally below an outright majority. If that route fails, the CDU would face difficult talks with smaller parties, potentially requiring some form of support from the Left Party.
The outcome matters beyond a state of roughly 2.1 million residents. German states oversee areas including education and security and participate in the Bundesrat, the federal upper chamber, although Saxony-Anhalt controls only four of its 69 votes. The immediate next steps are completion and certification of the count, followed by negotiations to determine whether the election winner can assemble enough parliamentary support to form a government.
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