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🇫🇷 France /Elections & Politics

“How far will its hunger for power go?”: After AfD’s historic result in Saxony-Anhalt, international media question the shape of the future regional government

From Le Figaro · () French

Translated from French and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Analysis From a news agency Context piece
  • The AfD won 44% in Saxony-Anhalt, its strongest result in the state and a record performance for the nationalist party there.
  • International media are focusing on whether lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund can convert the result into a governing majority.
  • The CDU fell to 17%, roughly half its 2021 result, prompting foreign newspapers to describe the outcome as a major defeat for the party and Friedrich Merz.

The AfD’s historic 44% result in Saxony-Anhalt was widely expected, but the question now dominating international coverage is whether the party can turn its triumph into power. Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s lead candidate, is not guaranteed to take control of the regional parliament.

A crushing electoral victory

· The TelegraphThe British newspaper’s description of the AfD’s result in Saxony-Anhalt.

All polls had placed the nationalist party comfortably ahead, with support above 40%. The final result went even further, giving the AfD its strongest showing in the state. Britain’s conservative Telegraph called it “a crushing electoral victory,” while Italy’s centre-right La Stampa described it as “the best result ever achieved by sovereigntists in a German state.”

The best result ever achieved by sovereigntists in a German state

· La StampaThe Italian newspaper’s assessment of the AfD’s performance.

The victory also exposed the scale of the CDU’s decline. The centre-right party won 17%, half its result in the previous Saxony-Anhalt regional election in 2021. At that time, the CDU had narrowly finished ahead of the AfD. International newspapers offered a series of harsh descriptions for the latest result: De Tijd in Belgium called it “a bitter setback,” Austria’s Der Standard described “a total collapse,” and The Times called it “a personal humiliation for Friedrich Merz.”

A bitter setback

· De TijdThe Belgian newspaper’s description of the CDU’s result.

The result has therefore opened a new political question beyond the AfD’s record vote: what kind of regional government can emerge from it, and how far can Siegmund’s party go in translating electoral dominance into parliamentary control?

A personal humiliation for Friedrich Merz

· The TimesThe British newspaper’s characterization of the outcome for the CDU leader.
About this summary

Originally published by Le Figaro in French. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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