Election in Saxony-Anhalt: BSW would help AfD become prime minister

If the successful AfD top candidate Ulrich Siegmund stands for election, then the BSW will continue to abstain from a third round of voting in the state parliament, says BSW top candidate Thomas Schulze.

All developments in the live blog

In addition to our own research, we use material from the news agencies dpa, Reuters, epd, KNA and Bloomberg for our live blog. You can also find all the news, analyzes and background information on the election in Saxony-Anhalt on our topic page.

Important updates

What government options are available

Preliminary results: AfD misses an absolute majority – BSW enters the state parliament

Musk congratulates the AfD on its election triumph - Siegmund speaks of cooperation

CDU does not win a single direct mandate

Siegmund was also successful in his constituency

BSW top candidate: BSW would abstain from the third round of voting

The BSW top candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, Thomas Schulze, has announced that his party's new state parliamentary group would abstain from electing a prime minister in a third round of voting. “We will not take part in a firewall coalition,” Schulze announced on Deutschlandfunk.

In the third round of voting, a simple majority in the Magdeburg state parliament is enough to elect a new prime minister - then the AfD could get its top candidate Ulrich Siegmund through.

But we have to wait to see whether Siegmund will even stand for election as prime minister, said Schulze. He expects the AfD to approach the other parties as the election winner.

At the same time, Schulze confirmed that the BSW wanted to propose a non-partisan candidate for the office of Prime Minister. A person from Saxony-Anhalt will be named “promptly,” he said.

This is how Saxony-Anhalt voted – provisional result

After counting all 2,661 electoral districts, the state election management announced the following preliminary results of the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt at 2:56 a.m.:

AfD: 43.8%

CDU: 17.2%

Left: 8.6%

SPD: 9.3%

Greens: 8.9%

BSW: 5.3%

FDP: 2.6%

Other: 4.4%

According to the information, voter turnout was 77.8 percent. In the last election in 2021 it was 60.3 percent.

Schnieder: “Whoever governs is responsible for ensuring that it works in the end”

The Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate and CDU leader Gordon Schnieder has called on the federal government to make clear decisions and argue less. “Whoever governs is responsible for ensuring that things work in the end. That problems are solved and decisions are made,” said Schnieder in Mainz. “Germany cannot afford a long-term political dispute.”

After the election in Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer believes that a self-critical pause in politics is urgently needed. He hopes “that we won’t go back to business as usual in a week or two, but that we’ll finally start to look at what motivates people and why they vote like that,” said the CDU politician in Dresden. “And it really annoys me over the past few years that that didn’t happen.”

What government options are available

The AfD won the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt by a wide margin. Ulrich Siegmund is therefore not yet Prime Minister. His party is three seats short of an absolute majority. Mathematically, she could govern with the BSW - politically, such an alliance is not yet foreseeable. A government of all other parties or a minority model would also be possible.

The election of the Prime Minister could be particularly important: after two failed rounds of voting, the majority of votes cast may finally be sufficient. But even then, Siegmund's election would be far from certain. AfD and the four parties CDU, SPD, Greens and Left each have 39 seats. The BSW plays a key role with five mandates, but individual MPs can also play a decisive role.

Read more about this in the text by Tim Frehler:

Churches concerned about election results in Saxony-Anhalt

The results of the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt are of “great concern” to the churches. "This state election has profoundly changed the political situation in Saxony-Anhalt. The country is divided. Our concern is for social peace and the coexistence of people in our state," said the bishops of the Protestant and Catholic Churches, Friedrich Kramer and Gerhard Feige, as well as the church president of the Evangelical Regional Church, Karsten Georg Wolkenhauer. The concern also applies to the consequences announced by the AfD that the election results will have for culture and education, community and voluntary work, diakonia, Caritas and churches.

“Even after the election, we churches remain firmly on the side of those who are keeping a watchful eye on the policies of the AfD.”

Friedrich Kramer, regional bishop of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany

His Catholic counterpart Feige appealed to the AfD to fully respect the constitution of Saxony-Anhalt and the Basic Law and to protect the dignity of all people. “Anyone who wants to take on government responsibility takes responsibility for all the people in our country.”

Chancellor Warken against personnel issues

Chancellor Nina Warken insists on a stable federal government after the elections in Saxony-Anhalt. “It would be the wrong thing if we asked personnel questions,” said the CDU politician on ARD when asked about Chancellor Friedrich Merz. "The government has been elected for four years, the Bundestag has been elected for four years. We now also need a certain stability here." Merz is also the one who initiates and advances things that need to be changed.

Warken demands that the black-red coalition implement the reforms. “We have to go faster” so that people feel that something is changing. The economy must “finally get back on track” and the social security systems must be stabilized.

International press reviews on the election in Saxony-Anhalt

The strong performance of the party, which is classified as right-wing extremist in the state, is causing a great response beyond Germany. Many major international media outlets are making the election results their top story.

Italy, La Stampa: "81 years after Hitler's downfall, which left the country in ruins and with the indelible guilt of the Holocaust, a party that more or less explicitly invokes that Germany wins the state election in Saxony-Anhalt."

Switzerland, Neue Zürcher Zeitung: "The CDU's worst nightmare has come true: the voters have halved the party. It achieved the worst result in its history in the federal state and, on top of that, lost the election with the AfD to a party to the right of it. If the former CSU leader Franz Josef Strauss were still alive, who once said that there should be no democratically legitimate party besides the Union at this point, he would be horrified."

Great Britain, The Independent: "(...) This victory is the biggest success in the AfD's 13-year history and comes at a time of widespread dissatisfaction with an unpopular federal government that has so far failed to convince voters that it can revive the country's ailing economy. Furthermore, the victory is a symbolic setback for (Chancellor Friedrich) Merz, whose center-right party has ruled Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years."

USA, Wall Street Journal: "Everything that once stood is crumbling, and many of the tools that once served to contain the far right have proven useless or even counterproductive. The AfD's overwhelming victory in the small eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt will force the democratic camp to rethink its strategies of the past few years and reevaluate some truths that were previously considered irrefutable."

International political celebrities also spoke up. You can read more about this in the article by the SZ correspondents:

Anna Schimpp

Auschwitz survivor Eva Runde: This election result scares us

Auschwitz survivor Eva Runde is horrified by the AfD victory in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. “This election result scares us,” said the President of the International Auschwitz Committee after the organization announced in Munich. She further asked:

"Which path is Germany on? The path it has already taken before?"

Eva Rund (President of the International Auschwitz Committee)

“As survivors of the Holocaust, we would never have thought the fact that a right-wing extremist party would once again be the strongest faction in a German state parliament,” said Runde. The Auschwitz survivor announced that she would continue to fight for democracy and memory. “We owe this to our murdered relatives, and this is our obligation to the young people in Germany.”

In Berlin, the committee's executive vice-president, Christoph Heubner, added: "It's not just Holocaust survivors' view of our country that is darkening. After this election result, people in many European countries will be asking themselves what answers the democratic parties are now finding in Germany and how stable German democracy is."

SPD Vice President Schweitzer sees a need for discussion on the reform course

After the AfD's election victory in Saxony-Anhalt, the deputy SPD chairman Alexander Schweitzer believes it is necessary to rethink the federal government's reform course. “It is absolutely clear that this reform needs to be discussed,” said Schweitzer, referring to the planned revision of the pension system. The pension commission's proposals would have to be on the table again.

From the perspective of the SPD vice-chairman, the federal government has “no small share” in the outcome of the election in Saxony-Anhalt. When asked whether Lars Klingbeil and Bärbel Bas were still the right SPD chairmen, he replied: “They are.”

Söder speaks of an “epochal break” after the AfD election victory

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) sees the AfD's clear election victory in Saxony-Anhalt as a historic turning point. “First of all, you have to take a breather,” he told radio station Bayern 2. “This is a real turning point and to a certain extent a break in the era.”

However, he warned the sister party CDU not to want to govern “at any cost” with “small majorities” and to appoint the Prime Minister. “I don’t think it would be a promising approach,” he told the radio station. “Reinterpreting the election results would be a difficult thing.” “It would be difficult for citizens to understand that,” he says. “The task clearly lies with the AfD,” said Söder. “This is democracy now, so it’s important to recognize it first.”

The state election was “a reminder election” that “has less to do with Saxony-Anhalt and more to do with Berlin.” It must be clear by now at the latest: “It cannot continue like this.” The federal government must “take a significant step forward” in reforms – but in a “socially balanced” way. You have to ask yourself “how you can not only sell the policy better, but also change it in some places”. What is important is “a renaissance of the economy and industry”, which needs to be “organized in a socially just manner”.

Wagenknecht for a “new political beginning” in Magdeburg

After the BSW's narrow election success, party founder Sahra Wagenknecht is calling for a "new political beginning" in Saxony-Anhalt. “Hopefully there are now majorities in the Magdeburg state parliament for a change of course in energy policy, an end to the Russia sanctions, better education and a fundamental reform of public broadcasting,” Wagenknecht told the German Press Agency. “The BSW wants to use these majorities to improve people’s lives.”

According to the preliminary final results in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance just managed to get over the five percent hurdle. As the election winner, the AfD does not have an absolute majority of seats. What exactly a government model in Magdeburg could look like is unclear. Wagenknecht had ruled out a coalition with the AfD, but not cooperation.

“The election loser from the CDU must be replaced,” said the party founder.

"The firewall policy has failed. The mere attempt to forge a firewall coalition again would be an affront to the voters."

Sahra Wagenknecht, BSW founder

Wagenknecht was very satisfied with the election results, which exceeded the most recent polls. “BSW’s comeback has begun,” said Wagenknecht. “In times of growing danger of war, it is an important signal that the only consistent peace party will enter the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt.” This is a great encouragement for the BSW election campaigners in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin.

Preliminary results: AfD misses an absolute majority – BSW enters the state parliament

The AfD with its top candidate Ulrich Siegmund won the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt with a large lead (43.8 percent), but missed an absolute majority. The CDU with Prime Minister Sven Schulze comes in second place with bitter losses (17.2 percent), as can be seen from the preliminary results published on the website of the state returning officer.

There was initially no information about the mandates in the state parliament. According to the preliminary election results, the AfD could be the first time since the end of the Second World War that a party classified as right-wing extremist could come to power in a federal state - but it would need supporters to do so. It is unclear whether she will be able to convince individual members of other parliamentary groups to vote for Siegmund as Prime Minister. The other parties in the state parliament had ruled out a coalition with the AfD before the election.

According to the preliminary results, the Left lost votes and achieved 8.6 percent, the SPD remained in single digits with 9.3 percent. With 8.9 percent, the Greens achieved their best result to date in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. The FDP fails at the five percent hurdle and only manages 2.6 percent - state leader Sylvia Hüskens announced her resignation. The Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) had to tremble after the first forecast, but is now entering the state parliament in Magdeburg for the first time with 5.3 percent of the vote.

Musk congratulates the AfD on its election triumph - Siegmund speaks of cooperation

The tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who has long sympathized with the AfD, has told the r