Election in Saxony-Anhalt
The polling stations are open
September 6, 2026, 9:04 am|
People in Saxony-Anhalt have been able to cast their votes since 8 a.m. Almost 1.7 million citizens aged 18 and over are entitled to vote.
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
Demonstration in Magdeburg – “Willy-Brandt-Platz is full of Democrats”
Thousands of people are expected to demonstrate in Magdeburg and Halle
Significantly more attacks on journalists
Schulze: “Don’t build castles in the air”
About “foreign doctors” who don’t speak German
Anna Schimpp
The polling stations are open
Now the following applies: The polling stations in Saxony-Anhalt are open to the almost 1.7 million eligible voters between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. The postal voting documents can also be submitted to the responsible office until 6 p.m., as the MDR informs.
All Germans aged 18 and over who have had their main residence in Saxony-Anhalt for at least three years are eligible to vote. With the first vote, they elect a candidate within their constituency, meaning 41 people are directly elected to the state parliament. In addition, 42 additional MPs are usually selected via the second vote. However, only those parties that achieve at least five percent of the second vote are taken into account.
In principle, all people have access to the polling stations throughout election day: during the day while voting is being cast and from 6 p.m. when the counting takes place publicly and the electoral board determines the result. That's five to nine citizens that the municipality has appointed from the electoral district.
If you would like to know which scenarios are conceivable for the election outcome, read the following analysis:
Head of the economists warns against the AfD government
Economist Monika Schnitzer warns of the consequences of the AfD taking over government in Saxony-Anhalt. Schnitzer is chairwoman of the Council of Experts for the Assessment of Overall Economic Development - the “Economists” for short - and a professor at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.
“In view of the election program, it is to be expected that if the AfD takes over government, the state would become significantly less attractive as a location for skilled workers and companies,” Schnitzer told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. In other words: Urgently needed skilled workers would be deterred if the party classified as right-wing extremist in Saxony-Anhalt came to power. There was a risk of serious economic consequences. Many workers in the state will retire in the coming years. According to Schnitzer, without immigration from outside there would soon be a shortage of skilled workers. “And without sufficient skilled workers, urgently needed investments will not be made.”
A singer receives the biggest applause
Luisa Neubauer gives an urgent speech in which she warns of the end of the firewall and for which she repeatedly receives applause from the audience. But the thousands of people only really escalated when the singer Kerstin Ott entered the stage directly after Neubauer. There she performs her big hit: “She always laughs”. The people of Magdeburg, at least the people on Cathedral Square, definitely warmed up afterwards.
The Green Party leader is also on site
Felix Banaszak walks through the crowd of demonstrators on Magdeburg Cathedral Square, stopping briefly at a young man wearing a Green shirt and chatting with him about the last few days of the election campaign. The election in Saxony-Anhalt is also very important for federal politics and its representatives. Behind Banaszak, climate activist Luisa Neubauer takes the stage to begin her speech.
“This is Saxony-Anhalt too” – demo on Cathedral Square begins
Several thousand people have gathered on the cathedral square in Magdeburg, rain clouds are gathering above them, but at the front of the stage the organizers are trying to spread a happy message: Saxony-Anhalt is cosmopolitan and diverse. “This is Saxony-Anhalt too,” says a speaker, and there is much applause from the crowd. According to reports, Prime Minister Sven Schulze from the CDU is also among those present, although he has not yet been spotted. He is not scheduled to appear.
Dominik Fürst
Dominik Fürst
Dominik Fürst
The cathedral square in Magdeburg is filling with people. You can see union flags, rainbow flags and many signs calling for a ban on the AfD.
Iris Mayer
Demonstration in Magdeburg – “Willy-Brandt-Platz is full of Democrats”
The demonstration for an open society begins in front of the main train station in Magdeburg, on Willy-Brandt-Platz. It is directed against the right-wing extremist AfD, which, according to surveys, is likely to win the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt tomorrow, Sunday.
People demonstrate for an open society in front of the main train station in Magdeburg. Nicolas Richter/SZ
Many posters call for a ban on the AfD. One says: “AfD brings us inhumanity and violence.” The “Grandmas Against the Right” are particularly well represented. The organizers are currently explaining that the demo promotes tolerance, diversity and cosmopolitanism. She wants to set an example for democracy and human dignity. “The whole of Europe is watching us,” says one of the organizers to the cheers of those present. “Willy-Brandt-Platz is full of Democrats,” praises another.
You can read more about the demonstration here:
Prien: Abolishing compulsory schooling would be a catastrophe
Federal Education Minister Karin Prien is strictly against the abolition of compulsory schooling called for by the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt. “Giving up compulsory schooling would be a socio-political catastrophe,” said the CDU politician to the German Press Agency. Instead, from the minister’s point of view, “we should think more about mandatory approaches in daycare”.
In its program for the state elections this Sunday, the AfD advocates freedom of choice between school and home education under the heading “Compulsory education instead of compulsory schooling”. Children who are educated at home should take central exams every six months.
From Prien's point of view, that would be the wrong approach. “I consider compulsory schooling to be one of the great achievements of the modern constitutional state,” said the minister. "Children need school as a place to learn and live. Children who don't go to school are at risk of significant psychological impairments." People from different backgrounds meet at school; they are places of integration and social interaction. “People already move far too much in their bubbles,” said Prien.
The state in no way forces children to attend state schools. Rather, parents could opt for private alternatives with different concepts, for example church or Montessori schools. However, there is state supervision and common rules for these schools.
Prien also said: “I believe that mandatory attendance at daycare and additional educational opportunities in daycare a year before school are absolutely necessary for those children who we identify as needing support.” The compulsory daycare year for everyone now announced in Baden-Württemberg would be a variant, she added. “But at least children with special needs should be in daycare in the last year before school.”
Thousands of people are expected to demonstrate in Magdeburg and Halle
Several thousand people are expected to take part in demonstrations and rallies in Saxony-Anhalt on the election weekend. According to police information, a dozen events have been registered in the state capital Magdeburg and several pro-democracy rallies in Halle (Saale). The largest will take place this afternoon on Magdeburg Cathedral Square: an alliance of trade unions and civil society is expecting around 8,000 participants here. In addition, the AfD, which is clearly ahead of the CDU in the polls and is hoping for a sole government, is officially concluding its election campaign.
This time, the major election research institutes are not expecting a surprise like five years ago, when the AfD ended up weaker on election day than in previous surveys and the CDU was significantly stronger than expected. “We do not expect such a large mobilization effect in the last few days as in 2021,” said the head of the elections research group, Matthias Jung, to the German Press Agency. This time, the AfD opponents were more widely divided into different parties, said Jung. The heads of the opinion research institutes Infratest dimap and Insa made similar statements.
“logo!” person responsible defends interview with AfD top candidate
ZDF defended an interview in the "logo!" children's news with the AfD's top candidate for the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund. "In the end, we are not guided by the question of what shitstorm is threatening, but rather by our mission: Children need reliable information in order to be able to form their own opinions. Even when it becomes uncomfortable," wrote Constanze Knuckles, head of "logo!" news at ZDF on Thursday evening in a post on the LinkedIn career network.
In the "logo!" program on the children's channel of ARD and ZDF (Kika) on September 3rd, the former state student representative in Saxony-Anhalt, Lucienne Balke, interviewed Siegmund and the incumbent Prime Minister, Sven Schulze (CDU). The decision to interview Siegmund in a children's program as a representative of a party that is classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony-Anhalt was sharply criticized on social networks. The interview lasted almost 30 minutes.
Willingmann: The economic situation is better than described in the election campaign
SPD top candidate Armin Willingmann has called for less pessimism with regard to the situation in Saxony-Anhalt. The economic situation is “perhaps not as dramatic” as many people perceive it to be, he said in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. During the election campaign, the impression was consistently given that everything was collapsing, he criticized. That is not the case.
"We have problems, like other countries. We are currently integrated into a global political framework. There is little we can do about it, but we have to take a stand against it."
SPD top candidate Armin Willingmann
Willingmann also emphasized that there are positive forecasts for Saxony-Anhalt. “When it comes to economic growth, we actually have a doubling of the previous forecast this year.” That is light at the end of the tunnel. “Let’s look there and not so often in the rearview mirror,” said the SPD politician.
Armin Willingmann. Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa
Significantly more attacks on journalists
Before the state elections, attacks on journalists and obstructions to reporting increased. According to the German Journalists' Union (DJU), more than 30 incidents were registered in connection with AfD events, affecting almost 50 journalists, TV teams and political influencers.
The DJU, part of the Verdi union, says it has been monitoring the situation since the beginning of May. It was said that 25 of the incidents occurred in the hot phase of the election campaign in the past three weeks alone. The spectrum ranges from verbal defamation and targeted obstruction of work to stalking and physical attacks. According to the professional association, the escalation largely came from right-wing or right-wing extremist streamers and media activists who dominated the AfD events environment. “This makes the situation more explosive than it has been in the entire past year,” said Lucas Munzke from the DJU. For comparison: In the statistics of the journalist organization Reporters Without Borders, there were five cases in Saxony-Anhalt in 2025.
How do MDR employees deal with the AfD's announcement that it will cancel broadcasting contributions? Read this text:
What might a government look like?
At the end of the thematic blocks, the four men discuss the question of power. With what majority would the two top candidates form a government? Neither Schulze nor Siegmund wants to anticipate the election results. Siegmund would like a majority of more than two seats in parliament for his party in order to “make history”. Schulze, much more modest, does not want to form a government with either the AfD or the Left, but says he is still open to coalitions with everyone else. Unfortunately, the moderators don't ask how this can be achieved with the current survey results.
Schulze: “Don’t build castles in the air”
We continue in Halle with the topics of education and household. Schulze calls many of Siegmund's statements "unserious" and "unrealistic" - especially the expensive promises that the AfD makes without saying how it plans to finance free daycare places or school meals. The state of Saxony-Anhalt is in debt, as the moderators emphasize several times. Schulze points to external factors when it comes to debt and says: “We must not build castles in the air during the election campaign.” The challenger even agrees with him, but misses a “long-term plan for this country”.
Schulze shows the limits of state politics
What can a Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt actually decide is a recurring question in the election campaign. The AfD likes to stick to issues that actually belong to the federal government's area of responsibility, but suggests inaction on the part of the state government. Siegmund wants to reduce fuel prices by reducing taxes and symbolically holds a fuel receipt into the camera. There isn't much left for Schulze other than to explain to his competitor again that he is running for the office of Prime Minister - and what that means for the implementation of his political agenda.
