The far-right Alternative for Germany won a German state election outright for the first time on Sunday, taking 43.8 per cent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt — more than double its 2021 result and, by a wide margin, the strongest showing the party has ever recorded in a state election.
With all 2,661 districts counted in the preliminary result, the AfD won 39 of the state parliament’s 83 seats, up from 23. The Christian Democrats, who had led Saxony-Anhalt for decades, collapsed to 17.2 per cent and 15 seats, down from 40. The Social Democrats took 9.3 per cent, the Greens 8.9, the Left party 8.6 and the newer Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance 5.3; the Free Democrats fell out of the parliament. Turnout jumped to 77.8 per cent from 60.3.
A win without a government
Winning did not hand the AfD power. It holds 39 seats, three short of the 42 needed for a majority, and every other party has ruled out governing with it. The state’s outgoing premier, Sven Schulze of the CDU, said his party no longer has a mandate to govern and would sit in opposition, and that no Christian Democrat would help elect the AfD’s lead candidate, Ulrich Siegmund. The only majority that excludes the AfD would require the CDU, SPD, Greens, Left and the Wagenknecht Alliance — five parties spanning the spectrum — to hold 44 seats together.
The AfD’s branch in Saxony-Anhalt has been classified since November 2023 by the state’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organization.
Why a German state vote matters here
Federal CDU leader and chancellor Friedrich Merz called the result deeply alarming and said it would have consequences, speaking at his party’s headquarters in Berlin. Saxony-Anhalt is a state of about 2.1 million people in Germany’s formerly communist east, and the vote is being read across Europe as a measure of the AfD’s strength a year out from the next round of major German elections. For Canada, Germany is a central European trading partner, and the direction of its politics bears on the relationship Ottawa is leaning on as it diversifies trade away from the United States. No Canadian government statement had been issued on the result.
The result is preliminary; the state electoral authority is due to certify the final count on Sept. 22.
Source: Landtagswahl 2026, vorläufiges Ergebnis, Landeswahlleiterin Sachsen-Anhalt, Sept. 7, 2026.
