AfD Wins Biggest Share in Saxony-Anhalt but Falls Short of Majority

The Alternative for Germany has doubled its 2021 result in Saxony-Anhalt, winning 43.8% of the vote in the state election. The far-right party will become the largest force in the 83-seat parliament, but its 39 seats leave it three short of an outright majority.

The result leaves AfD state leader Ulrich Siegmund facing the immediate challenge of forming a government. He said voters had given the party a mandate and that it wanted to begin governing as soon as possible. If efforts to build a government fail, he mentioned the possibility of holding new elections.

The center-right CDU of Chancellor Friedrich Merz suffered a major setback. It received 17.2% of the vote, its worst result in a Saxony-Anhalt state election, and failed to win a single one of the 41 direct constituencies. AfD candidates won 38 constituencies, including Siegmund in Genthin. The Left won the remaining three, one in Magdeburg and two in Halle.

Six parties are expected to enter the state parliament. The SPD won 9.3% and eight seats, the Greens 8.9% and eight seats, the Left 8.6% and eight seats, and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance 5.3% and five seats. The FDP received 2.6% and failed to cross the 5% threshold.

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance could become pivotal in coalition negotiations because it shares AfD positions on migration and opposition to German support for Ukraine. Any cooperation would confront Germany’s established political “firewall” against working with the far right. Turnout was almost 78%, the highest in Saxony-Anhalt since German reunification in 1990.

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We achieved exactly what we wanted to achieve. We made history in this state.