State election: An election like no other, with all eyes on Saxony-Anhalt

The campaign is over, and Saxony-Anhalt is voting in a state election that has drawn attention far beyond the eastern German state. About 1.7 million people are eligible to vote. For the first time, the AfD could potentially enter government in a German state. Saxony-Anhalt's domestic intelligence agency classifies the party as extremist.

The state is currently governed from Magdeburg by a coalition of the CDU, SPD and FDP. Polls indicate that alliance will lose its majority. The AfD, led by top candidate Ulrich Siegmund, is expected to emerge as the strongest party. A final Forschungsgruppe Wahlen poll commissioned by ZDF put the AfD at 41 percent, ahead of the CDU of Minister-President Sven Schulze at 23 percent. The Left stood at 11.5 percent, the SPD at 8.5 percent and the Greens at 6 percent. The BSW and FDP were below the 5 percent threshold, at 4 percent and 3 percent respectively. Twenty-six percent of respondents remained undecided about whether or whom to vote for.

An AfD victory would not automatically bring it to power. None of the other parties wants to form a coalition with the AfD, while Siegmund has said he would seek the office of minister-president only if his party wins an absolute majority and can govern alone. If that does not happen, a CDU-led minority government could become an option, potentially requiring support from the Left.

That possibility creates a problem for the CDU. A party conference resolution rejects both a coalition and “similar forms of cooperation” with the Left as well as with the AfD. Schulze's preferred outcome, a majority for parties of the center such as the CDU, SPD and Greens, appears highly unlikely based on the polling.

The contest has also taken the form of a direct duel between Schulze and Siegmund. Schulze became minister-president only in January after Reiner Haseloff resigned, limiting the benefit of incumbency. Yet in the final poll, 48 percent said they would prefer Schulze as minister-president, compared with 34 percent for Siegmund, who has been greeted like a pop star at many campaign events. Elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin follow in two weeks, extending the focus on Germany's coalition landscape.

“

Similar forms of cooperation