MAGDEBURG, GERMANY – SEPTEMBER 5: AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party, speaks to supporters during the final campaign rally on the eve of state elections in Saxony-Anhalt on September 5, 2026 in Magdeburg, Germany. (Photo by Jens Schlueter/Getty Images)
Jens Schlueter | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The far-right Alternative for Germany surged into first place in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, but exit polls after voting closed made it unclear whether it could form a government on its own.
The AfD won 44.5% of the vote, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives at 18.5%, while the center-left Social Democrats and environmental Greens both cleared the minimum threshold to enter parliament, an exit poll on the ARD broadcaster showed.
The party’s co-leader Alice Weidel hailed an “historic” result that gave the AfD a clear mandate to govern, but it was not immediately clear whether it could form a government.
If the AfD is unable to rule outright, it could trigger a protracted coalition-building process by mainstream parties determined to keep out of power a party investigated for right-wing extremism by Germany’s domestic intelligence service.
The left-wing populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a potential AfD coalition partner, could also clear the threshold.
While hard right parties have gained ground elsewhere in Europe, Germany’s Nazi past has contributed to a reluctance among mainstream parties to cooperate with the AfD, which wants a hard line on migration and warmer ties with Russia.
The AfD, led in Saxony-Anhalt by the 35-year-old Ulrich Siegmund, sees accusations of extremism as scaremongering and an insult to its millions of supporters.
Sunday’s result is another blow to Merz’s authority, whose popularity has sagged as his coalition government struggles to revive growth in Europe’s largest economy.
In a fracturing political landscape, the AfD is now Germany’s most popular party nationally, though other parties have ruled out forging coalitions with the AfD in a policy known as the “firewall”.
AfD ‘can no longer be stopped’
For the AfD, Saxony-Anhalt is a test run for its larger ambitions of securing national power in the next federal election set for 2029.
If elected, the AfD plans to push schools and cultural institutions towards more traditional values, curb immigration and overhaul public broadcasting.
However, without an absolute majority, the AfD, which has been classified as “far-right extremist” by the state security service, would struggle to enter government due to the firewall.
Siegmund, who arrived to cast his vote in his hometown of Tangermünde on a blue Simson moped, greeted by throngs of excited fans, has ruled out coalition talks with other parties.
Falling short of that opens the prospect of complex coalition negotiations among the other parties.
Polls suggest one of the CDU’s current coalition partners, the Free Democratic Party, will fail to enter parliament, while the other, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), is under 10%.
The small left-wing populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), the only party not to rule out a coalition with the AfD, also risks missing out.
That could leave Schulze, who is favored in polls as voters’ top choice for leader, scrambling for a viable majority.
One option could be a minority government led by Schulze that would depend on passive tolerance from the Left Party — a model used in the neighboring eastern German state of Thuringia.
Schulze, casting his vote in Magdeburg with far fewer crowds, said he hoped for a high turnout after what he described as a physically and mentally demanding election campaign.
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