The far-right AfD party shook the political landscape of Germany this Sunday by winning the regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt with a record result of 44%, according to the first projections from the public broadcaster ZDF, pending the final count. Far behind, the Christian Democratic CDU would remain as the second force, plunging to 18.5%, followed closely by the leftist Die Linke and the Social Democratic SPD, both parties with 9%.
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The ultras fall just short of an absolute majority (they would be one seat short), this being the only way to bypass the firewall (Brandmauer) with which the other parties have always excluded them from federal, regional, and local government coalitions. The Parliament located in the capital, Magdeburg, consists of 83 seats, so the absolute majority is 42, and the AfD would have obtained 41 seats.
The Christian Democratic CDU – which has governed since 2002, in this legislature in coalition with Social Democrats and Liberals – suffers huge losses compared to the previous 2021 elections, in which it was the most voted party with 37.1%. The current regional president, Sven Schulze, preferred not to have his fellow party member and federal chancellor, Friedrich Merz, close during the campaign, whose very low popularity throughout Germany he felt was detrimental. The current coalition does not renew its majority.
The Greens would obtain 8.5%. The Liberals, with a meager 2.5%, do not reach the minimum required 5% to obtain parliamentary representation. The pro-Russian leftist party Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) approaches 5%, but it is not definitive that it consolidates it.
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This is not the first time that the AfD is the most voted party in a land. It already happened two years ago, in September 2024, when it became the leading force in Thuringia, another eastern federal state, but it was with 33.4%, not with the spectacular percentage achieved in Saxony-Anhalt. In this sparsely populated eastern land (2.1 million inhabitants), the AfD, led by Ulrich Siegmund, has doubled its support since the previous 2021 elections, in which it obtained 20.8%.
The day had a high turnout compared to previous elections. It was 80%, higher than the seven previous elections (the first was in 1994) at the same time. 1.7 million voters were called to the polls. Around 20% cast their vote by early mail-in ballot. The new Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt must hold its first session no later than October 6.
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