The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has won the regional elections in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, although without enough votes to govern alone, opening the door to the formation of a government supported by the rest of the political formations.
Specifically, projections based on the first counts of the Infratest dimap Institute and the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen institute for the public television stations ARD and ZDF, respectively, the far-right formation would have obtained between 44.3% and 44.4% of the votes, very close to the 42 seats necessary to obtain an absolute majority in the regional parliament. In this way, the first projections place the AfD on the verge of an absolute majority and, therefore, of the first regional government of a far-right formation in the Central European country. It would also be the first time that the extreme right comes to power in Germany since World War II.
Ulrich Siegmund's AfD has prevailed over the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of regional Prime Minister Sven Schulze, which obtained between 18.3% and 18.4% of support.
The Left is the third most voted force, obtaining between 9.2 and 9.3%, while the Greens achieved 8.7% according to projections, which see the Social Democratic Party (SPD) with 8.4 or 8.7%.
SPD co-leader and vice-chancellor Lars Klingbeil noted that "there are people in Saxony-Anhalt and throughout Germany who have major concerns with this result, people who have a migrant background and have worked here for years."
Among the small parties, the FDP liberals, who were part of the coalition government led by Schulze together with the SPD, have not surpassed the 5% barrier, while the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) has remained very close to that percentage, between 4.8 and 5%.
Whether or not BSW enters the regional Parliament will be key for the political future of Saxony-Anhalt. The party's candidate, Claudia Wittig, has declared that her party wants to "decide based on content" and carry out projects that are good for the state, "also with the AfD or with other parties." However, when asked whether the BSW would vote for Siegmund as prime minister, he did not want to commit.
According to Ifratest dimap projections, with that party out of Parliament, the AfD would have 41 seats in a regional chamber made up of 83 deputies, while an agreement between the CDU, the SPD, the Greens and the Left could add 42 seats, which would be a majority.
However, the CDU has already said that it does not want to cooperate with The Left. The general secretary of the CDU, Franziska Hoppermann, stated that "serious conversations cannot be held with a party that has a serious problem of anti-Semitism, that wants a model of society completely different from ours and that accuses us of engaging in fascist politics." "In this sense, our red lines are clear: there will be no cooperation with either left-wing extremists or right-wing extremists," he emphasized.
The participation rate has been at record levels, reaching 76.5%. To date, the highest participation in a regional election in Saxony-Anhalt had occurred in 1998, eight years after the Reunification of 1990, when 71.5% of the electoral body appeared at the polls.
Euphoria in AfD: "It is an assignment to form a Government"
AfD leader Alice Weidel has celebrated the "historic" result obtained in the regional elections. "It is a wonderful result for us and it is a task to form a Government," she said, euphorically.
"Our hand is outstretched for a coalition or cooperation," added Weidel, while his colleague at the party leadership, Tino Chrupalla, has suggested that "there may also be a tolerated minority government."
For his part, the AfD candidate for prime minister, Ulrich Siegmund, who has managed to reduce the weight of the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt by half, has assured that he will reach out "to all the forces that want to achieve, together with us, a fundamental political change in this country."
The other side of the coin has been in the CDU, where its candidate, Sven Schulze, has expressed disappointment by acknowledging that the party has suffered "a tough defeat."
"We live in a democracy and I want to congratulate the winner of the elections. The winner of the elections, the AfD, is now the strongest political force in the regional parliament of Saxony-Anhalt," he admitted.
