The AfD Is Now Forced to Govern

The AfD has won 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt, and the result leaves Germany's far-right party with an uncomfortable obligation: it must now try to govern. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, which won 5.3%, also cleared the threshold for parliament. Together, the two Kremlin-friendly parties would command an absolute majority of seats.

That gives the AfD two possible routes. Ulrich Siegmund, who is seeking to become Germany's first AfD state premier, could try to recruit dissatisfied lawmakers from the defeated CDU. That would be his preferred option. If it fails, the BSW is at least prepared to discuss how Saxony-Anhalt might be governed with or by the AfD. Initial reactions suggest that every other party is unwilling to consider such cooperation.

The election result has not changed what the article describes as the party's ideological core. For months, the AfD warned of Germany's decline and promised to save the country. Many of its supporters demanded change without clearly defining what that meant. They showed little concern that Germany's domestic intelligence service, judges and legal experts classify the party as far right.

The campaign's more measured public style also did not signal a break with extremist currents. In late August, the AfD youth leadership in Magdeburg said it would have no problem if 20 million people were driven out of Germany. Because the country does not have that many foreign citizens, the statement appeared to include German citizens as well. The group called Generation Germany supported Siegmund's campaign, while two men in his inner circle previously held senior positions in the now-banned neo-Nazi organization Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend, which indoctrinated children in racial theories and the concept of blood purity.

Siegmund appeared little inclined toward compromise on election night. His program is described as radical, while the CDU has been cut in half. A government excluding the AfD would therefore require the CDU to work with the SPD, the Left, the Greens and the BSW, an arrangement the article portrays as highly difficult.