Kretschmer calls Saxony-Anhalt a “historical mistake” after the AfD election victory

Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) commented on the AfD's election victory in the neighboring state of Saxony-Anhalt with a bitter joke: "Saxony-Anhalt is unfortunately a historical mistake," he said on the evening of the election at an anniversary event at a private theater in Dresden. “Maybe we should have divided this country,” Kretschmer continued, earning a few laughs from the audience.

As “Sachsen Fernsehen” reports, presenter Kim Fisher asked the Prime Minister about the emerging result in Saxony-Anhalt and asked for an assessment. The CDU lost a lot of support and achieved its worst result in this state at 17.2 percent. The AfD got 43.8 percent.

“Otherwise it is of course an extremely bitter development,” added Kretschmer. He only has one hope: "That we don't go back to business as usual in a week or two, but that we finally start to look: What motivates people, why do they vote like that? What can you change if you are the federal government?" The last words of his statement were lost in applause.

Kretschmer was a guest at the 30th anniversary of Comödie Dresden, a private theater in Dresden's old town. With his remark, Kretschmer alluded to the history of Saxony-Anhalt. The federal state was created in 1947 from several smaller areas. In addition to the Prussian provinces of Magdeburg and Halle-Merseburg, which had emerged from the Prussian province of Saxony three years earlier, this included Anhalt, which had been independent for centuries, as well as smaller Braunschweig exclaves. The country was dissolved in this form in 1952. In the course of reunification in 1990, various territorial options were discussed, including a merger of part of the former Saxony-Anhalt with Saxony. Finally, the state of Saxony-Anhalt was re-established in 1990 with slightly different borders compared to 1947.

The Saxon Prime Minister won the election in September 2024 just ahead of the AfD and governs Saxony as a minority government in a coalition of the CDU and SPD. This Saxon model, in which a consultation mechanism is open to all opposition parties, has been discussed again and again in recent weeks as an option for Saxony-Anhalt. On the one hand, the AfD in Saxony has always refused to cooperate. On the other hand, the majority situation in Saxony-Anhalt is now different, as the CDU would have to rely on all parties except the AfD to organize a majority for legislative proposals.