What happens after the far-right AfD's sweeping victory in Saxony-Anhalt? ‘Forming a coalition will be problematic’

The AfD won Saxony-Anhalt's state election with 43.8% of the vote, an unprecedented result for the far-right party in the German state. Yet its victory did not give it enough seats to govern alone, leaving the next government deeply uncertain.

The Alternative for Germany more than doubled its 2021 result, when it won 20.8%. Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats came a distant second with 17.2%, down sharply from 37.1% in the previous election. The Social Democrats took 9.3%, the Greens 8.9% and the Left 8.6%, its worst result in the state's history, although it remained in parliament. The populist BSW crossed the threshold with 5.3%.

The 83-seat parliament will include 39 AfD lawmakers, four short of the number needed to govern alone. The CDU will hold 15 seats, while the SPD, Greens and Left each won eight. The BSW secured five seats.

Coalition building therefore promises to be highly difficult. No other party wants to work with the AfD, and the other available combinations also lack a majority. VRT NWS journalist Jeroen Reygaert attributed the party's success to broad dissatisfaction and a sense of being disadvantaged compared with western Germany. "Dissatisfaction, in those five syllables you can explain the success," he said.

Turnout was 77.8% among nearly 1.7 million eligible voters, up from 60.3% in 2021 and the highest recorded in Saxony-Anhalt since German reunification in 1990. The AfD had pushed hard in the final days for an outright majority. Missing that goal may sting, the report said, but the result still represents an extraordinary victory for a far-right party in postwar Germany.

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Dissatisfaction, in those five syllables you can explain the success.