State election: AfD wins Saxony-Anhalt in CDU debacle

The AfD won Saxony-Anhalt’s state election by a wide margin, but its victory did not give it the absolute majority it had sought. The CDU, led by Minister-President Sven Schulze, suffered a severe defeat and finished second.

Preliminary results gave AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund’s party 43.8% of the vote, more than double its 20.8% result in 2021. It was the party’s strongest result in a state election and the best performance by any party in such elections over the past decade. The CDU fell to 17.2%, down from 37.1%, its worst result in a state election in Saxony-Anhalt.

The figures leave the AfD with 39 seats in the Magdeburg state parliament, compared with 15 for the CDU. The Left won 8.6% and eight seats, the SPD 9.3% and eight seats, and the Greens 8.9% and eight seats. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, or BSW, received 5.3% and entered the state parliament for the first time. The FDP failed to clear the 5% threshold, taking 2.6%, and state chairwoman Sylvia Hüskens announced her resignation.

The AfD’s result could allow a party classified as definitively right-wing extremist to reach power in a German state for the first time since the end of World War II, according to seat projections by Infratest dimap for ARD and Forschungsgruppe Wahlen for ZDF. It would need support, however, and it remains unclear whether individual lawmakers from other groups could back Siegmund as minister-president. All other parties had ruled out a coalition with the AfD before the vote.

The previous governing coalition of the CDU, SPD and FDP has ended. Schulze and his cabinet will remain in office in a caretaker capacity until a new minister-president is elected. Turnout reached 77.8%, the highest in Saxony-Anhalt since reunification, compared with 60.3% in 2021. Nearly 1.7 million people were eligible to vote.