AfD comes first in regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt with historic score

This is the best score in its history in a regional election. This Sunday, the German far-right party, the AfD, came well ahead of the elections in Saxony-Anhalt according to public broadcasting estimates. However, she still has to wait to know her score is enough to lead this ex-GDR Land. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), an anti-migrant, Russophile and pro-Trump group, became the country's leading opposition party in the 2025 legislative elections.

With between 44 and 44.5%, the Alternative for Germany is well ahead of the conservatives (CDU) who would obtain 18.5%, according to polls carried out at the exit of the polling stations for the ARD and ZDF channels. If these scores are confirmed during the count, the radical right would obtain 39 seats in the regional parliament, while 42 are needed for an absolute majority. A snub for conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

The AfD “wrote history” according to its leader

Despite the uncertainty over its possibility or not of leading the Land of the former GDR, the far right has “written history” according to Ulrich Siegmund, the regional leader of the AfD, nostalgic for East Germany. “We need a fundamental political change in this country, with a policy that finally looks after our own interests, our own country again,” he said after the first estimates were announced.

This victory in Saxony-Anhalt could take on an even more historic dimension if the AfD wins the absolute majority of elected officials, because never since 1945 has a radical right formation led a German region.

The other training courses are very far away. The Social Democrats (SPD), the radical left Die Linke and the Greens are around 9%. A pro-Russian left-wing group, the BSW, is waiting to know if it passes the 5% threshold necessary to be represented.

In the absence of parties ready to ally with the AfD, only an absolute majority in the regional parliament guarantees Ulrich Siegmund to lead this poor former GDR region of 2.1 million inhabitants. Unless you poach from other camps.

Expulsion of foreigners, revision of History and exit from public broadcasting

Voting to the acclamations of supporters in his stronghold of Tangermünde, Ulrich Siegmund, 35, predicted that his victory “will lead to a recomposition of the political landscape” in Germany. If he governs, he has promised to increase the expulsions of foreigners, to modify school history programs, too focused for his taste on the guilt of Germany of the Third Reich, or even to exit German public broadcasting, deemed anti-AfD.