CDU loses all direct mandates in Saxony-Anhalt, AfD wins 38 constituencies

The CDU not only halved its result in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. For the first time in the state's history, she also lost all direct mandates. Five years ago the CDU won in 40 of 41 constituencies, this time the AfD secured 38 direct mandates.

The AfD's strongholds are in the south, where the party was already able to secure some constituencies in the 2016 state elections. This time, eleven AfD candidates even cracked the absolute majority and received more than 50 percent of the first votes, including AfD strategist Hans-Thomas Tillschneider (54.6 percent) in Querfurt. Top candidate Ulrich Siegmund secured his direct mandate in Genthin with around 49.0 percent.

All developments after the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt in the live ticker.

Approval for AfD candidate Reiner Kretschmann was highest in Eisleben at 55.6 percent. He clearly leaves the CDU candidate René Barthel behind with 21.4 percent. The gap is more than 34 percentage points – more than in any other constituency.

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Things only got tight for the AfD in the major cities of Magdeburg and Halle (Saale). In the Magdeburg III constituency, CDU Prime Minister Sven Schulze (31.7 percent) was only 1,165 votes short of winning the election. That went to AfD man Christian Mertens (35.2 percent), and Schulze entered parliament via the state list. It is the narrowest AfD victory in the country.

Left wins three constituencies in Magdeburg and Halle

The reason why the AfD missed out on three direct mandates is that the two large cities of Magdeburg and Halle were each divided into four constituencies. Three of them went to the Left, but the AfD only really had no chance in one constituency: In Hall III, Left candidate Jannik-Loris Balint clearly beat the AfD candidate (39.9 to 17.8 percent). Gitta Susann Hartenstein-Wiermann (29.6 against 24.9) and in Magdeburg II Mustafa Groener (29.4 against 23.4) also won by a slight margin against the AfD in Halle II.

Balint's constituency in Halle includes, among other things, the old town and the Paulusviertel - a Wilhelminian style district popular with students and academics. The voters in the left camp relied on vote splitting: While Balint got almost 40 percent, the left only got 13.8 percent of the second votes. The Greens were the strongest party in Hall III with 33.7 percent of the second votes.

The vote splitting is also evident in Halle II and Magdeburg II, where the Left won the direct mandates, but only 12.2 and 12.6 percent of the second votes and had to admit defeat to the AfD.

As in the federal election, the Left focused heavily on the issue of rents and offered advice in the door-to-door election campaign in the state's two major cities. In addition, the three winners of the direct mandates also mobilized their supporters by taking part in anti-AfD demonstrations. And in particular the 27-year-old Groener, the son of an East German and a Moroccan, campaigned in migrant milieus.

Groener, a shift worker at Bosch, describes himself as a democratic socialist and flirted on Instagram with being a kind of Zoran Mamdani, the New York mayor, only with an East German dialect. He also campaigned for votes in Arabic, represented pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel positions and, like Balint, relied on the support of the Neukölln Left-wing Bundestag member Ferat Kocak in the election campaign.

AfD wins the majority in all communities

Despite the isolated left-wing successes, the AfD is the clear winner of the state elections. This is also shown by a look at the results at community level. Five years ago, the CDU won the majority of first and second votes in most communities, with a few exceptions in favor of the AfD, the SPD (in the Harz) and the Free Voters (in the Altmark).

On Sunday, the AfD secured a relative majority in both the first and second votes in all municipalities in the country - but often also the absolute majority of all votes. The AfD achieved its highest victory in Schnaudertal in the Burgenland district with 70.6 percent of the first and 64.7 percent of the second votes, the worst result in Halle (Saale) with 30.1 percent of the first and 29.9 percent of the second votes.

This means that the AfD's worst second vote result is still higher than the CDU's best second vote result with 23.3 percent in Steigra in the Saale district. But hardly any number illustrates the CDU's loss of power more clearly than the first vote result at the municipal level: in only 17 of 218 municipalities the party received more than 30 percent. That's not enough for a governing party.