The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) achieved a landslide victory in Sunday’s regional elections in the state of Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote, more than double its result in 2021. Shortly after the first exit polls were released, party leader Ulrich Siegmund declared the result a “clear” mandate for AfD to govern. However, AfD fell short of an absolute majority, securing 39 out of 83 seats in the regional parliament, meaning it would have to govern as a minority administration. (AfD previously won the 2024 state elections in Thuringia, but a coalition of the remaining political forces prevented it from taking power).
BSW—which does not support the cordon sanitaire against AfD—enters the legislature with five seats, while pushing out the Liberals (FDP), who had won seven seats in 2021. The remaining seats are distributed as follows: 15 for the CDU, and 8 seats each for Die Linke, the SPD, and the Greens.
The CDU suffers a heavy defeat, losing more than half of its vote share. The slump brings its support down to 17.2%, though it holds on to second place. The Left (Die Linke) loses its third-place position at the ballot box, dropping to 8.6% of the vote. Standing ahead of them in the state parliament are the Social Democrats (SPD), who rise to 9.3%, and the Greens, who reach 8.9%. Sahra Wagenknecht’s party (BSW) secures 5.3% of the vote, three-tenths of a percentage point above the electoral threshold to enter the state parliament.
