Voters in eastern Germany blow up post-unification politics

Saxony-Anhalt’s voters have blown up the political order that took shape after German reunification. The eastern state accounts for only about 3% of Germany’s electorate, but Sunday’s result has shaken assumptions about how politics works in Europe’s largest country.

For 36 years, the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union shared power in Saxony-Anhalt, alternating between the centre-left and centre-right. In the first democratic election of 1990, the two parties won 65% of the vote. Now they attract just 26% between them, almost 20 points less than the Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

The AfD began as an anti-bailout party and gained strength during the refugee and asylum crisis. Migration remains a concern for one in two voters, but the cost of living has overtaken it. Seventy percent said they worried they could no longer pay their bills and maintain their standard of living.

AfD leaders celebrated the result on German television and said Saxony-Anhalt could be only the beginning. The party already leads nationally with 27% to 28% support and hopes to gain further momentum from two state elections later this month.

The result also creates a problem for Friedrich Merz’s government. Merz can stress that state governments mainly control infrastructure, education and health, not security or foreign policy. But major tax and welfare reforms need a stable majority in the Bundesrat, where Germany’s 16 states are represented. An AfD-led or politically unstable Saxony-Anhalt could slow or derail those measures, potentially weakening the coalition. Next month, the state will take the rotating presidency of the Bundesrat, giving it significant influence over the parliamentary agenda and voting schedule.