Germany’s far-right AfD scores a landslide in eastern state election

The Alternative for Germany has won a sweeping victory in Saxony-Anhalt, taking at least 44 percent of the vote in exit polls from Germany’s former communist east. The result puts the far-right party within reach of an absolute majority, though it was too early to know whether it had crossed that threshold.

"We have made history today," said Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s 35-year-old lead candidate in the state. His jubilant reaction captured the scale of the party’s breakthrough in a regional election that could allow it to govern a German state alone for the first time.

The centre-right CDU, led nationally by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, finished a distant second with about 18.5 percent, according to exit polls by public broadcasters ARD and ZDF. The result represented a sharp setback for the party in the state.

Depending on the final count, CDU state premier Sven Schulze could still try to form a new multiparty coalition to prevent the AfD from taking power. All major parties have so far maintained a firewall against cooperation with the Moscow-friendly AfD. The party’s state branch is classified as right-wing extremist, according to the supplied report.

“

We have made history today.