The AfD wins in Saxony-Anhalt

According to initial projections released by ARD after the polls closed, Alternative für Deutschland is set to win a clear victory in Saxony-Anhalt with over 40 per cent of the vote: the first projection puts the far-right party at 44.5 per cent, more than double the 20.8 per cent it secured in the 2021 elections. This result in the state election in the former GDR is the best ever achieved by the AfD in a regional election in Germany.

According to initial projections, the second-most voted party is the CDU led by Minister-President Sven Schulze, with 18.5 per cent of the vote. This is a historically poor result for the CDU: in 2021, when the state was led by Reiner Haseloff, it secured 37.1 per cent of the vote. The left-wing party Die Linke is projected to receive 9.5 per cent, followed by the Greens with 9 per cent and the SPD with 8 per cent. For the SPD, too, this is shaping up to be its worst-ever result in the state: in 2021, it had achieved 8.4 per cent.

“It is a historic result,” Alice Weidel, the AfD’s federal co-leader, told ZDF. “The result represents a very clear mandate to govern” for the AfD. The leader added that her party could even reach 45 per cent in the election. Weidel also left open the possibility of an agreement with other political parties: “We’ll have to wait and see who ultimately does so, perhaps even through external support or a coalition.”

However, the CDU has stated that it is not in favour of joining the government: “We do not collaborate with extremists and, above all, not with those on the far right,” CDU General Secretary Franziska Hoppermann told ARD.