AfD Co-Chair Chrupalla Calls for Policy Shift After Saxony-Anhalt Election Victory

BERLIN, September 7. /TASS/. Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-chair Tino Chrupalla said after the party’s decisive victory in the election to the Saxony-Anhalt Landtag (state parliament) that it would pressure Berlin to restore relations with Russia and change its sanctions policy.

"We want to have good relations with Russia again," Chrupalla said in an interview with ARD TV channel. According to him, sanctions policy needs to change. "The AfD will have to address this issue primarily in the Bundesrat (the chamber representing Germany’s federal states), by putting pressure on the German federal government," he stressed.

At the same time, Chrupalla noted that the AfD wants to govern in Saxony-Anhalt following its election victory and seek partners to do so. "We will send offers of talks to all parties. Then we will see who rejects the hand we are extending," he explained. "I believe the CDU needs to ask itself what conclusions it should draw from this disastrous election result," the politician added. According to Chrupalla, the goal is to "continue providing stable government in Saxony-Anhalt, and opposition parties also bear responsibility for this."

"Talks will begin this week. This is our top priority, and I expect that Ulrich Siegmund will become our minister-president and be elected by the Saxony-Anhalt Landtag," Chrupalla said. A change in the region’s political course is crucial, he said. "We want to overcome divisions," the AfD co-chair concluded.

The Saxony-Anhalt state parliament election was held on September 6. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a decisive victory with 43.8% of the vote. This was the AfD’s best-ever result in any German state, doubling its share of the vote from the previous state election five years ago. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came in second, losing more than half of its vote share compared with 2021. The Christian Democrats received just 17.2% of the vote, the CDU’s worst-ever result in Saxony-Anhalt. The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) came in third with 9.3% of the vote. The Greens received 8.9% and the Left Party 8.6%. The BSW (formerly the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance - Reason and Justice) also cleared the threshold to enter the Landtag with 5.3%.