Far-right party Alternative for Germany scores victory in Saxony-Anhalt election
MAGDEBURG, Germany — The far-right Alternative for Germany party surged to a resounding victory in a regional election Sunday but fell a little short of winning a majority in its quest to form the country’s first far-right state government since World War II, reports BritPanorama.
The party of Germany’s unpopular leader, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, slumped to a disastrous result in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. The anti-migration and Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany’s candidate for governor, Ulrich Siegmund, stated that “we have written history” and that the party had a clear mandate to govern.
Siegmund, 35, told public broadcaster ARD that voters had sent a signal that “things cannot carry on like this.” He added that “a very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz.”
Alternative for Germany, or AfD, was seeking an absolute majority in the state legislature to govern alone and overcome the so-called firewall of mainstream parties’ refusal to work with AfD. Final results showed AfD falling three seats short, with 39 lawmakers in an 83-member parliament. Siegmund indicated that the party wouldn’t engage in “games” such as a minority government. However, it was not clear how its divided opponents could assemble any stable government without it.
A first state government would mark the biggest prize in the anti-migration party’s 13-year history, coming at a time of widespread discontent with a national government unable to convince voters of its capacity to improve the country’s sluggish economy.
Whether or not AfD ends up governing, the result represents a blow to Merz, whose center-right party has led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years. Unlike other countries in Europe, modern Germany hasn’t yet experienced a far-right or right-wing populist party leading a national, state or major-city government.
AfD is the largest opposition party in Germany’s national parliament and is particularly strong in the formerly communist and less prosperous eastern regions, including Saxony-Anhalt. Its regional branch in the state is classified as a proven right-wing extremist group by the domestic intelligence agency, due to its members’ denigration of migrants from Muslim countries, among other factors.
The party promotes the notion of “remigration,” a politically charged term referring to the deportation of immigrants. Its leader in a neighboring state has appealed two convictions for knowingly using a Nazi slogan. AfD vehemently denies accusations of extremism, claiming they are politically motivated.
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. This outcome far outperformed Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, which polled 17.2% — a loss of about half its support — and secured 15 seats. The center-left Social Democrats obtained 9.3%, while both the Greens and Left Party received 8.6%, winning eight seats each.
The BSW party, which has stated it will not elect either Siegmund or incumbent Sven Schulze as governor while criticizing the “firewall” against AfD, took 5.3% and five seats. Voter turnout was notably high at 77.8%, with many who had abstained in the previous election now participating.
AfD’s national co-leader Alice Weidel described the election outcome as “sensational.” She asserted that the party’s “hand is outstretched to all who want to make Saxony-Anhalt better and move Germany forward,” indicating hopes to attract defectors from other parties.
Schulze congratulated AfD on becoming the state’s strongest political force but maintained that “we as the CDU will also have to deal with this result,” without detailing how. Franziska Hoppermann, the national general secretary of Merz’s party, rejected any notion of interacting with AfD.
“AfD is a right-wing extremist party. It wants to leave the euro; that would be economic downfall. … It works closely together with Russia; it wants a completely different social model,” she remarked. “We will not work with them.”
Previously, AfD won a state election but did not end up governing, such as in neighboring Thuringia two years ago, where a CDU governor assumed power with a minority government, although AfD was significantly further from achieving a majority there.
Efforts by Schulze to forge an alliance against AfD would be delicate, requiring at least some tacit support from the Left Party, with which the CDU refuses to collaborate. Germany’s 16 states hold substantial powers, including oversight of security matters and education systems.
Siegmund has highlighted “a deportation offensive” and reducing incentives for individuals to come to Germany as top priorities. He aims to initiate a gradual withdrawal of Saxony-Anhalt from the regional public broadcaster, citing concerns regarding “disinformation.”
In addition, AfD in Saxony-Anhalt seeks to allow homeschooling, currently not permitted in Germany. It plans to ban schools from officially raising the rainbow flag, which it claims represents “the devaluation of the family,” and to ensure that they fly the national flag. The party also opposes taxpayer funds going to Ukraine and expresses intentions to lift sanctions against Russia, although such matters remain beyond the jurisdiction of state governments.
While Saxony-Anhalt holds limited influence in Germany’s upper house of parliament, which must approve specific government legislation, its government holds four of the 69 votes in a nation of 83.5 million people.
