Expert: AfD victory could have major consequences for German politics

The Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 43.8 percent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, delivering a landslide victory without securing its own majority. For Germany’s established parties, the result was a severe shock. The Christian Democrats, led nationally by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, fell from 37.1 percent in the previous election to 17.2 percent.

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It has great significance for German politics and its norms.

Ann-Kristin Kölln, a political science professor at the University of Gothenburg, said the result could reshape German politics and its norms. “It has great significance for German politics and its norms,” she said.

Kölln warned that the party’s performance could make the AfD appear normal and legitimate beyond Saxony-Anhalt. “If a party like the AfD, which the security service classifies as right-wing extremist, receives almost 50 percent of the vote, it sends a signal to other parts of Germany that this is a party that many people in one state regard as normal, legitimate and a force to be reckoned with. It shifts the norm, and it can pose a danger to democracy,” she said.

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If a party like the AfD, which the security service classifies as right-wing extremist, receives almost 50 percent of the vote, it sends a signal to other parts of Germany that this is a party that many people in one state regard as normal, legitimate and a force to be reckoned with. It shifts the norm, and it can pose a danger to democracy.

The AfD’s platform in the state includes withdrawing support for public broadcasting, removing what it calls rainbow ideology and gender studies from education, rewriting schoolbooks and allowing homeschooling. The party also wants to change the state security service, including potentially altering the classification of what is considered right-wing extremist.

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The economy plays a major role. East Germans feel that they are falling behind economically, that federal policy does not really see their needs and their view of society. That is above all what people are responding to now.

Saxony-Anhalt has just over two million residents and shares characteristics with other former East German states that joined unified Germany in 1990. Kölln said dissatisfaction with Germany’s current leadership and a sense of economic decline among eastern Germans are helping the AfD. The state also has relatively weak support for traditional parties, few large urban areas and a stronger local AfD organization than other eastern German states. Magdeburg, its largest city, has just over 240,000 residents, compared with Leipzig’s nearly 630,000 and Dresden’s more than 563,000 in neighboring Saxony.

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The AfD has also succeeded in building local organizations better in Saxony-Anhalt than in other eastern German states.