Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt —
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has secured a historic victory in the eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt, the closest a far-right party has come to holding power in a German state since World War II.
The party leaders and their lead candidate were overjoyed as the results were read out, whooping and backslapping as they secured their “historic” victory with 44% of the votes, according to preliminary results.
The win delivered the AfD 39 of 83 seats in parliament, just short of the 42 it needed for an absolute majority.
The party’s route to a majority may lie with working in a coalition, potentially with the far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party, which passed the 5% threshold to enter parliament – though the AfD has signaled it’s not interested in a deal.
The AfD had long been the front-runner for this weekend’s election, but securing an elusive majority, rare in Germany, was always going to be hard.
Still, speaking to CNN, a beaming Ulrich Siegmund, the party’s leading candidate, said, “This is a historic moment for our beautiful region. The people have shown very clearly that they finally want political change. And above all, they’ve shown that they want it with us.”
The AfD campaigned hard on “remigration” platform, to send non-Germans back to their native nations. As well as being openly pro-Russian, it has plans to push schools and cultural institutions toward more traditional values, curb immigration and overhaul public broadcasting.
Surrounded by reporters as he made his way through the event hall in the state capital of Magdeburg, Siegmund told CNN the election result will give his party the mandate to return to “sensible diplomacy” with both Russia and the United States. “We need both if we as Germany want to be successful,” he said.
The party’s co-leader Alice Weidel also told CNN in the immediate minutes after the polls closed, “Germans simply are fed up with policy being made against Germany’s interests. We stood for election very clearly to represent the interests of our country – not Ukraine’s, not any other country’s.”
US President Donald Trump, whose administration has long supported, and been courted by the AfD, posted a photo of the exit polls on his Truth Social.
Kirill Dmitriev, one of President Putin’s closest confidants, reposted Trump on his X account, and another post saying “AfD’s historic win humiliates the arrogance, narrow-mindedness, warmongering, ineptitude and hypocrisy of the discredited German ruling coalition.”
The questions facing the AfD now are whether to govern in coalition or go alone in a minority.
All mainstream parties have ruled out working with the AfD, which was classified as “extremist” by German intelligence for its anti-Muslim and anti-migrant rhetoric. They continue to maintain the so-called firewall by refusing any cooperation on policies with the far-right, a move Weidel slammed as “deeply undemocratic.”
Even if all the other parties did band together, the numbers are so heavily in the AfD’s favor that a grand coalition would still only be able to work in a minority.
It appears that debate is already taking place within the AfD.
Siegmund, speaking on German public broadcaster ZDF, ruled out working in a coalition with the far-left BSW saying, “We want to make it absolutely clear that voters finally get what they voted for after the election,” saying that the BSW was “part of the problem, not the solution.”
However, the AfD party co-chair Tina Chrupalla, said they would be prepared to “extend a hand” to all parties.
For Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the federal government, the results are chastening.
Already deeply unpopular across the country, questions will now start to rise as to how Merz can survive this bitter defeat, with the German public broadcaster ARD saying, “the real question is how much longer will he last.”
In Saxony-Anhalt, the CDU lost half of their vote.
Current CDU state minister Sven Schulze said, “This result tells us a great deal… the people have sent a clear message… and that this message must be recognized.”
AfD party co-leader Weidel took her opportunity to pour scorn on the CDU and the chancellor by saying that she expected Merz’s removal and federal elections “before Christmas.”
With key party officials making frequent trips to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the occupied Crimean Peninsula, the AfD’s support for Russia is no secret. The party is against further aid and defense packages for Ukraine, often referring to defense funding for Kyiv as money that is not being spent on programs for German people.
Party officials have also singled out Ukrainian and Muslim residents when talking about who they wish to deport.
But issues of foreign relations and immigration aren’t decided at the state level. Analyst Grégoire Roos, the director of the Europe and Russia and Eurasia Programs at Chatham House, said he would expect the AfD to lean more into issues of culture, education and local policing in Saxony-Anhalt.
Following her party’s historic success on Sunday, Weidel laid out her party’s ambitions should they succeed in federal elections: “We will cut all unnecessary spending, we will control our borders, we will deport everyone obligated to leave the country.”
Caitlin Danaher contributed to this story.
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