The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has achieved a historic victory this Sunday in the elections in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The counts at the end of the night indicate that it has obtained 44% of the votes and 39 seats in the regional Parliament, when the absolute majority is 42. The Christian Democratic formation CDU, of Chancellor Fiedrich Merz, collapses and would go from 40 to 16 deputies, half of the votes obtained in the regional elections of 2021. Its candidate, Sven Schulze, has admitted that the results are a disaster for the formation and now has congratulated Siegmund on the victory.
AfD could have a chance to govern only if the left-wing nationalist BSW party enters parliament. And the latest counts offered by public television, at 9:40 p.m. on Sunday, would confirm that the formation would obtain the votes necessary to achieve it. BSW is the only party that has distanced itself from the cordon sanitaire against the extreme right and has shown itself willing to facilitate the investiture of the AfD candidate, Ulrich Siegmund.
The formation of the radical right, founded in 2013, has so far only achieved four mayorships of smaller municipalities. Its greatest achievement has been being the second most voted force in the 2025 federal elections. It also won the regional elections in the State of Thuringia in 2024, but failed to take power, since the CDU managed to form a coalition.
Siegmund and Alice Weidel, leader of the AfD, have considered this to be a “historic result”, but not only for Saxony-Anhalt. “We send the message that what has happened here will happen throughout Germany,” proclaimed the winning candidate surrounded by German flags at the party's electoral headquarters in Magdeburg.
The social democratic party SPD, a partner of the CDU in the federal government and in Saxony-Anhalt, would lose only one deputy and would go from nine to eight. The leadership of the party considers it a success because the polls even predicted that it could leave Parliament. The third member of the regional Executive, the FDP liberals, have, however, been left without deputies.
AfD practically doubles the votes compared to 2021, exactly the same as the CDU would lose in this State that has just over two million inhabitants. The other party that is growing, although not like the far-right party, is The Greens, which would get eight deputies, two more than in the last elections.
It all depends on BSW
The outcome of election night can be determined by BSW. The party led by Sahra Wagenknecht would barely exceed 5% of the votes, the minimum percentage to enter Parliament with four deputies. BSW is suffering a serious internal crisis after the majority of its deputies in Thuringia split from the party this week to create a new force that continues in the regional coalition government led by the CDU.
Wagenknecht has shown her willingness to facilitate Siegmund's investiture in the event that the AfD is the most voted list. “With the AfD we understand each other in many areas,” commented Claudia Wittig, BSW candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, willing to negotiate the investiture if her party enters Parliament. “It would be undemocratic, given the majority they receive, for them not to have the option of governing.”
In the absence of definitive results, if AfD does not have an absolute majority and BSW is finally left out of parliament, the most likely scenario would be that an alliance of the rest of the parties will support the CDU candidate, to revalidate his presidency in Saxony-Anhalt. The main obstacle to re-electing Schulze is that the CDU must negotiate with the Die Linke party. This left-wing force has managed to maintain its presence in parliament with eight seats and for the CDU it is as radical as the AfD. The Christian Democrats emphasize that they do not want government pacts with either of the two, but the reality is that they have already cooperated with Die Linke in other regions to stop the AfD.
Weidel, the leader of the AfD, has stated on public television that if the Christian Democrats keep the cordon sanitaire in place “and continue to make agreements with the left, they will never win elections in Germany again.” Franziska Hoppermann, general secretary of the CDU, replied to Weidel that her party “will not agree with extremists, not even right-wing extremists.”
Merz followed the election night at the party headquarters in Berlin. The chancellor has not participated in the campaign due to the terrible popularity he has in Saxony-Anhalt even among CDU voters, according to polls. Nor have the national leaders of the SPD, partners of the CDU in the federal government, been present in the campaign.
The importance of the day has been evident with the participation data. At four in the afternoon, 65% of the 1.6 million people called to the polls had already voted, that is, above the total that voted in the last regional elections, 60.3%. The highest turnout in a regional election in Saxony-Anhalt was 71.5% in 1998. Estimates from ARD and ZDF indicate that turnout could have been as high as 80%.
The support for the AfD shown in the polls is also at a record level. Chancellor Helmut Kohl's CDU held it until today, after having achieved 39% support in this land in 1990, the year of German reunification. The results would be even more surprising at a time when the distribution of the vote between parties is greater now than in those years.
Election day has passed without reported incidents, with a huge police presence since Saturday in the state capital, Magdeburg. Law enforcement forces from other regions of Germany have also settled in the city to avoid potential altercations. A demonstration by anti-AfD organizations was held on Saturday, bringing together around 15,000 people, according to the organisers. The organizers of this protest have called on citizens again this Sunday to continue the electoral afternoon and night.
AfD has called on its followers to go to the polling stations to monitor the vote counting. In Germany it is possible for any identified citizen to be present at the count. The extreme right has questioned the electoral system in recent weeks, as part of its strategy to question the democratic system.
“We have to change now or never, this country is going to ruin,” said Birgit, a 67-year-old woman who voted for the AfD at a polling station in Magdeburg. Both she and her husband did not want their last name to be published. Both assure that they would vote for the CSU, the Bavarian Social Christians, "but since they are not present in Saxony-Anhalt, we opted for AfD." There are two reasons, as they explain, to justify their vote. The first is that society is increasingly poorer, according to your point of view. “In the German Democratic Republic (GDR) I was able to have five children because of the excellent state assistance network, this is impossible now,” said Birgit, who was a kindergarten teacher. When Germany was reunified, he lost his job and opened a restaurant, until his retirement.
The second reason, Birgit and her husband said, is the excess of foreigners. Saxony-Anhalt has one of the lowest foreign population rates in Germany, 7% of the total compared to the country's average, which is 15%. This has not been a problem for Siegmund who has based a good part of the electoral campaign on promising that he will expel thousands of migrants or that he will eliminate aid for foreigners.
