A record high of 44% of the votes in Saxony-Anhalt... Possibility of coalition negotiations with the radical left
(Berlin = Yonhap News) Correspondent Gye-yeon Kim = The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a landslide victory with over 40% of the vote in the parliamentary election in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt held on the 6th (local time). However, it failed to secure a majority of seats, so it is unclear whether it will succeed in taking power in the state government for the first time since its founding.
According to the Saxony-Anhalt State Election Commission, the AfD secured 44.6% of the votes as of 11:10 p.m. on this day, when 95% of the votes had been counted, beating the centrist conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDU, 16.9%) and becoming the largest party. The moderate Progressive Social Democratic Party (SPD) is recording 9.1%, the Green Party is recording 8.9%, and the Left Party is recording 8.4%.
AfD's vote share this time was more than double the 20.8% recorded in the previous 2021 Saxony-Anhalt state legislative election. This is the highest vote percentage since the founding of the state legislature in all federal elections. Ulrich Siegmund, a candidate for Saxony-Anhalt's chancellor, said, "We wrote history" and that the election results "are also a signal to Berlin."
Based on exit polls and mid-term vote counting results, public broadcaster ARD predicted that the AfD would receive 39 of the 83 seats in the state legislature and fail to secure a majority. The distribution of total seats and parties may vary depending on the final vote count results.
Even if AfD fails to establish a stand-alone government, there remains a possibility that it can form a coalition government with minority parties and take power. For this reason, unlike other political parties such as the CDU, which advocates the so-called 'firewall' principle, the radical left-wing Saarwagenknecht (BSW), which has announced its intention to cooperate with the AfD, has emerged as a 'kingmaker'.
If BSW enters the National Assembly by exceeding the 5.0% vote rate, which is the minimum standard for seat distribution, it can form a coalition government with AfD by exceeding half of the total number of seats. As of 11:10 AM, BSW's vote rate was calculated to be 5.2%. BSW, the successor to the former East German Communist Party, agrees with AfD on hard-line immigration and appeasement policies toward Russia, and is negative about other parties' firewall principle of not cooperating with far-right parties.
However, it is unclear whether a coalition between the two extreme left and right parties will ultimately be achieved. AfD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Krupala said they were open to coalition talks. On the other hand, Candidate Siegmund's position is that he will only take power if he can establish an independent government, so opinions are divided even within the party. BSW co-chair Amira Mohamed Ali is calling for a 'bipartisan' prime minister to be elected instead of Zigmund. Siegmund said that if a coalition fails to form a government, a new election may be held.
The AfD promised to ▲ deport illegal immigrants ▲ impose work obligations on asylum seekers ▲ reduce support for Ukrainian refugees ▲ strengthen patriotic education such as raising the German flag ▲ reduce support for public broadcasting. They also made promises that may be unconstitutional, such as creating a 'voluntary citizen patrol' to maintain public order and separating classes for students from refugee families.
Candidate Siegmund, 35 years old this year, has emerged as a key figure in the AfD, leading this election by storm and ranking first in national approval ratings. He, who was once a member of the CDU party, is credited with captivating the younger generation through social media and the older generation with his relatively neat and friendly appearance. Within the party, she is praised as ‘everyone’s sweetheart’ and ‘the type that would be loved by her mother-in-law.’
However, he attended a meeting on the mass deportation of immigrants by German-speaking far-right forces, which sparked discussions about disbanding the AfD party in 2023, and his aides are embroiled in controversy over their membership in a neo-Nazi group whose activities were banned by the Constitutional Court. Weekly magazine Der Spiegel called him 'Germany's most dangerous man'.
Saxony-Anhalt has a population of 2.12 million and 1.69 million voters, making it the 6th smallest state among Germany's 16 states by population. The AfD has used the former East German regions, including Saxony-Anhalt, which are economically behind West Germany and have a small immigrant population, as its home turf. The AfD, which advocates hard-line policies on immigration and strengthening German national identity, has produced several mayors of small municipalities since its founding in 2013, but has never held power in a state government.
This election attracted attention because of the possibility that a far-right local government would be established in Germany for the first time in 80 years since the fall of the Nazis. Voter turnout was provisionally calculated to be 74.5%, the highest among Saxony-Anhalt state legislative elections since the unification of East and West Germany. The voter turnout during the 2021 state legislative election was 60.3%. A state assembly election is scheduled for the 20th of this month in the former East German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the AfD receives nearly 40% of support.
