Alternative for Germany wins Saxony-Anhalt state election but falls short of an absolute majority

The Alternative for Germany dominated a key state election on Sunday but fell short of the outright majority needed to become the first far-right party to come to power in parts of Germany since the Nazi era, according to near-final results.

If these results hold, the party, known by its German abbreviation as AfD, could still take power in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt in the coming weeks, but this depends on negotiations between competing parties - the other parties have vowed not to support a government led by the Alternative for Germany.

Saxony-Anhalt is a relatively small state and the heart of the AfD's power in eastern Germany. But the results sent shockwaves through Germany's political system, which was designed after World War II to prevent extremist parties from returning to power.

“The Alternative for Germany’s electoral victory in Saxony-Anhalt reflects less on the appeal of its political agenda than it does on the political establishment’s failure to present a convincing vision for the state’s economic, political and social future,” said Jana Puglielin, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Berlin office.

The political establishment has always viewed the Alternative for Germany as an outlier. Still, the party capitalized on voter dissatisfaction over a wide range of economic and social issues to win about 44% of the vote in the state and was on track to win 39 of the 83 seats in parliament.

"We have made history and we are taking back our country," Ulrich Sigmund, the party's gubernatorial candidate, told a cheering crowd on Sunday. “It all starts here in Saxony-Anhalt.”

Exit polls showed that much of the AfD's vote gains came from losses for the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz that also leads the state's current government. In record turnout, the Alternative for Germany won the support of many Germans who were voting for the first time.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency has classified the Alternative for Germany as a "suspected extremist" organization and its Saxony-Anhalt branch as an "extremist" organization. Some of the party's leaders have downplayed the seriousness of the Holocaust and adopted Nazi slogans. There are also leaders with close ties to Russia. The Alternative for Germany has also said Islam is incompatible with Germany's constitution and vowed to deport immigrants on a mass scale.

The Alternative for Germany denies the extremist accusations, saying they are politically motivated. Voters have dismissed the accusations, with many saying in polls on Sunday that they believed the AfD provided better answers on economic, security and immigration issues than the mainstream political camp.

63-year-old Thomas Schroeder rode to the polling station in the center of Magdeburg to vote for Sigmund and the Alternative for Germany party. "He gave me hope, so he got my vote," Schroeder, a heating technician, said of Sigmund. He also said he had lost trust in other political parties. "I tried almost every political party and what did I get?" he said.

The result encouraged AfD supporters across Germany and around the world. President Trump posted an image of an exit poll showing the Alternative for Germany leading on his social media platform Truth Social.

Elias Beck, a 70-year-old man from Bavaria, leaned over his phone outside the central train station in the state capital Magdeburg, studying a chart that showed the Alternative for Germany close to an outright majority in early results. He said he hoped the party would win because the German government failed to address serious problems at home such as illegal immigration while spending hundreds of millions of dollars abroad.

"Germany has all kinds of problems, but all the money goes to Ukraine," he said.

Some rival parties appear to have mobilized supporters against the Alternative for Germany, with some leaders in Berlin vowing that this was just the beginning of a counterattack over a potential government formation by the AfD.

Lars Klingbeyer, Germany's deputy chancellor and a center-left Social Democratic Party member, said on television that the election was "a turning point," adding that "a lot of people across Germany are scared and worried about the results of this election for the Alternative for Germany party."

One of those worried is 27-year-old Pakistani Mohammad Hassan. He said in Magdeburg on Sunday night that he had made every effort to integrate into Germany since arriving in 2023.