Nearly half of Germans oppose an AfD-led government in Saxony-Anhalt

The Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won Saxony-Anhalt’s state election with 43.8% of the vote in preliminary results. Yet nearly half of Germans oppose allowing the far-right party to form a state government with support from other parties, a representative YouGov survey shows.

Thirty-six percent of respondents said the AfD should “under no circumstances” form a government with backing from other parties. Another 11% said they “mostly oppose” the idea. On the other side, 20% said the AfD “definitely should” form such a government, while 18% were “mostly in favor.”

The AfD does not have enough seats to govern alone. The Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, finished second with 17.2%. The Left, the Greens and the Social Democrats each won around 9%, while the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance narrowly cleared the 5% electoral threshold. That leaves open which parties could form the next state government, dpa reported.

The survey also showed disagreement over the CDU’s position. About four in 10 respondents said it was wrong for the party to rule out cooperation with the AfD, including 24% who called the decision completely wrong and 16% who considered it mostly wrong. In contrast, 31% called the CDU’s stance completely right and 15% mostly right.

Views were similarly divided over the CDU’s decision to exclude cooperation with the Left. Forty-one percent considered that decision completely or mostly wrong, while 39% considered it right. YouGov surveyed 1,862 German adults on Sept. 7.