AfD scores landslide regional victory but falls short of majority

The far-right Alternative for Germany party surged to a commanding lead in Sunday regional elections, more than doubling its share from five years prior. Despite capturing 43.8% of the ballots in the region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin, the party won 39 seats in the 83-member state parliament, missing the threshold required for an absolute majority by three seats, according to final results published following the vote.

Voter participation reached 77.8%, with the surging political force drawing in many individuals who sat out the election five years ago. The party’s lead candidate for governor, 35-year-old Ulrich Siegmund, celebrated the outcome on election night at the Messe trade fair halls in Magdeburg.

Siegmund told public broadcaster ARD that voters had sent a signal that things cannot carry on like this, adding that his political movement now holds a clear mandate to govern. He also remarked that a very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz, pointing to the unpopularity of the federal chancellor.

The governing federal center-right party suffered a severe defeat in the eastern state where it had held power for 24 years. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union slumped to 17.2% of the vote, losing roughly half its previous support and securing just 15 seats.

Incumbent Sven Schulze congratulated the winning party on becoming the state’s strongest political force, stating that we as the CDU will also have to deal with this result, though he did not specify how his party would respond. Meanwhile, Franziska Hoppermann, the national general secretary of the chancellor’s party, firmly rejected any softening of the mainstream firewall against the far-right group.

CDU Backs Sven Schulze to Lead Saxony-Anhalt Government Formation Talks

Other regional parties finished far behind the frontrunners. The centre-left Social Democrats secured 9.3% of the vote, the Greens took 8.9%, and the Left Party won 8.6%, with each securing eight seats in the legislature. Meanwhile, the BSW party captured 5.3% of the vote and five seats, having previously stated it would not support either Siegmund or Schulze for governor while criticizing the exclusionary firewall.

Because mainstream parties refuse to cooperate with the regional branch—which Germany’s domestic intelligence agency classifies as a proven right-wing extremist group due to members’ rhetoric on migration—forming a government remains complicated. Siegmund stated that his party would not engage in political games such as forming a minority government. However, it remains entirely unclear how divided opposition factions could assemble a stable administration without involving the state’s dominant political force.

National co-leader Alice Weidel described the electoral outcome as sensational, noting that the party’s hand is outstretched to all who want to make Saxony-Anhalt better and move Germany forward, while potentially looking to attract defectors from rival factions. The regional branch has previously outlined aggressive local policy priorities, including launching what it terms a deportation offensive, eliminating financial incentives for migrants who exploit our social system, permitting homeschooling, and banning rainbow flags from schools while mandating the national flag.