Saxony-Anhalt election: A political earthquake and what comes next

The AfD has won Saxony-Anhalt’s state election with 43.8% of the vote, producing what could become a turning point for German politics. For the first time in the history of the Federal Republic, a party classified as definitively far-right could lead a state government.

The CDU finished a distant second with 17.2%. The SPD, Greens and Left followed with 9.3%, 8.9% and 9.6%, respectively. The BSW narrowly cleared the 5% threshold, while the FDP, which is still part of the state government, decisively failed to enter the Magdeburg state parliament.

Turnout rose above 77%. The AfD benefited particularly from the increase, mobilizing more than 150,000 people who had previously not voted. Ulrich Siegmund, the party’s lead candidate, called Chancellor Friedrich Merz his “best campaigner.”

Merz entered the Saxony-Anhalt campaign only at a late stage, and many question whether he gave his CDU any momentum. When he ran for the CDU chairmanship in 2018, he promised to halve the AfD. In Saxony-Anhalt, the CDU instead halved its own 2021 result. Across party lines, critics have blamed Merz and the federal CDU’s direction for the AfD’s victory.

The result also exposes the chancellor’s weak national standing. According to the latest ARD-DeutschlandTrend poll cited by Die Zeit, 83% of eligible voters are dissatisfied with his performance. The analysis now turns to how much responsibility Merz and his controversial social reforms bear for the result, and what it could mean for the forthcoming state elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

“

best campaigner