Alternative for Germany’s landslide victory in Saxony-Anhalt has drawn celebration from Europe’s populist right.
Alternative for Germany’s dominant showing in Sunday’s Saxony-Anhalt election has triggered starkly divided reactions across the continent, exposing the widening fault line between Europe’s establishment centre and its emboldened populist right.
AfD won 43.8% of the vote, more than double its showing five years ago in the region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin.
That was far ahead of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, which polled 17.2% — losing about half its support — and won 15 seats. The center-left Social Democrats polled 9.3%, the Greens 8.9% and the Left Party 8.6%, winning eight seats apiece.
In Berlin, the result landed as a direct blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who watched the count from CDU headquarters without addressing the public.
General secretary Franziska Hoppermann called it “a very difficult result for us,” while state premier Sven Schulze offered only muted congratulations to AfD.
AfD Co-leader Alice Weidel declared “we have received a very clear mandate to govern here.”
“We ran on a clear platform of representing the interests of our country, not those of Ukraine or any other country,” Weidel told reporters.
“If we receive the mandate to govern at the federal level and assume governmental responsibility, we will cut all unnecessary spending. We will control our borders. We will deport all those required to leave the country and all criminals. We will close the borders.
“I also expect early federal elections, and I expect the current chancellor to be replaced before Christmas.”
Lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund also needled Merz, saying “a very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz. Every day this man is in the chancellery is one too many.”
Participation was at a record high of 76.5%.
The CDU and all other mainstream parties have also refused to collude with the AfD in a government, in what is referred to as a Brandmauer, or firewall. The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt has been classed as “rightwing extremist” by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency.
About 1.7 million people were eligible to vote in the east-central state of 2.1 million residents. Polling booths opened at 8am local time and closed at 6pm, when exit polls were released.
Siegmund has consistently said he would refuse to take over as state premier unless his party gained an absolute majority, saying this was the only way it could effectively enact change in Germany.
The number of undecided voters in advance of the vote was much lower than at previous elections, polling showed.
In a reflection of the significance of the vote for the entire German political landscape, the level of voter participation was considerably higher than at previous elections, hitting 54% by 2pm, compared with 27% at the same time for the equivalent vote five years ago, according to the state election commissioner.
The small state has been governed since 2002 by Merz’s conservative CDU, together with two smaller parties.
The Saxony-Anhalt election had been seen as the biggest test yet for Merz, who is unpopular, along with his government – a coalition with the SPD – having failed in his promises so far to reset Germany’s struggling economy or stop the rise of the AfD, which has been making regular and steady gains since it entered parliament in 2017 and is now the leading opposition party. Illegal immigration has reduced since Merz has been in office, but not to the extent that it has appeased the average voter.
A win for the AfD puts huge pressure on Merz. In national polls, the CDU has also been overtaken by the AfD, which has it eyes on victory at the next federal elections in 2029 or 2033.
If the AfD manages to form a government in Saxony-Anhalt, Siegmund has promised to immediately start a remigration and deportation offensive, ban rainbow flags in schools, and halt the building of new windfarms.
He wants to change the slogan of the state from “Think Modern” to “Think German”, and to reintroduce the singing of the German national anthem in schools.
Siegmund also sought in the campaign to capitalise on a mood of “ostalgie” or nostalgia for communist East Germany, and to tap into discontent among east Germans. He has made repeated references to a rise in foreigner-related crime.
Siegmund turned up to vote on Sunday morning with his wife, riding an East German-era moped in the party colours, which was also a prominent prop during the election campaign in rallies across the state. In a statement in front of the polling station, he voiced his optimism that the party would achieve “45%, and some”, and saying he wanted to “build bridges”.
Tensions before the election were high, with a considerable police presence and a number of demonstrations planned. Thousands of opponents of the AfD gathered in the state capital, Magdeburg, on Saturday, for a so-called “festival of democracy”.
Critics have also warned that an AfD-run state, due to the Kremlin-friendly stance of the party, could leak sensitive information to Russia. The AfD has dismissed such claims. It has said it would seek to reform the domestic intelligence service, calling it biased.
Party co-leader Alice Weidel wrote on X “Congratulations to @UlrichSiegmund and @AfD_LSA for this sensational result – the evening remains exciting!
Elsewhere on the continent, Europe’s populist right treated the outcome as validation. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini declared that “another Europe is possible.”
Spain’s Vox leader Santiago Abascal called the result “a great hope for Germany and for Europe,” while Portugal’s André Ventura hailed AfD’s “historic” victory, linking it to public anger over immigration.
French founder/president of the Reconquête! party Éric Zemmour commented “AfD has just secured 45% of the votes in Saxony. Its historical record.
Voters will be blamed. The real culprits are those who, for half a century, treated as a crime what peoples felt as an obvious truth: the desire to remain oneself.
The cordon sanitaire has never protected anyone. It has only delayed the hour of truth. That hour has come. And it will toll everywhere.”