After far-right victory in Saxony-Anhalt, AfD leader opens talks to form government

The AfD’s 44% result in Saxony-Anhalt has opened a new fight over who can govern the eastern German state and intensified the party’s challenge to Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

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Never has a chancellor been as unpopular as Friedrich Merz, who has become a serious handicap to Germany’s prosperous development.

Alice Weidel, the AfD’s co-leader, said the result showed that Merz had become a burden on Germany. She described him as an unusually unpopular chancellor and said the anti-immigration, pro-Russian party would aim for at least 40% in the next federal elections, scheduled for 2029.

In Saxony-Anhalt, AfD leader Ulrich Siegmund said talks had begun to find the three additional lawmakers needed for the absolute majority required to form a stable regional government. He said the party would speak with parliamentary groups or individual deputies willing to take on what he called a historic task. The discussions began overnight, he said.

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We will of course begin discussions and see whether parliamentary groups or deputies will want to take on this historic task with us.

The AfD could seek lawmakers from Merz’s conservative CDU and at least tacit support from the pro-Russian left-wing BSW. Siegmund also pointed to a message on X from entrepreneur Elon Musk as evidence, in his view, that investors would not flee the state after the result.

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I am now pleased about the talks that have been launched, which had already begun overnight.

The party used the victory to press its national themes, including opposition to immigration, the energy transition and what it calls insecurity. Weidel said Germans no longer wanted illegal immigration, open borders, crime linked to foreigners, a refusal to deport people without legal status, high energy prices or accelerating deindustrialization. Co-leader Tino Chrupalla criticized financial support for Ukraine, accusing Berlin of sending tax revenue abroad instead of spending it on the German population.

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Germans no longer want the status quo. They no longer want illegal immigration, open borders, the explosion of crime linked to foreigners, the refusal to deport people without legal status, or a catastrophic energy policy that produces some of the highest energy prices in the world.