German exit polls suggest far-right party has big lead in regional election

AfD supporters celebrate with a sign featuring top candidate Ulrich Siegmund after the first results of the Saxony-Anhalt state election at the party's election night gathering in Magdeburg, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. Matthias Schrader/AP hide caption

BERLIN — Germany's far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland, or Alternative for Germany, (AfD) has won the most votes in the closely watched regional election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt according to exit polls.

Projections show the party is comfortably ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), but it remains unclear whether the AfD will win enough seats to secure a majority in the state parliament.

According to exit polls released on Sunday by German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF the AfD is on course to win a record 44.1% to 44.5% of the vote. The Christian Democratic Union is projected to take 18.5%.

The AfD won 20.8% in the 2021 regional election. If the projections are accurate, the CDU has halved its share of voters while the AfD doubled theirs.

If the AfD succeeds in forming a government, it would mark the first time in Germany's postwar history that the far-right has taken control of a state government.

The party's anti-establishment appeal is no longer confined to eastern Germany; at the federal level, the party is also polling first. A win in Saxony-Anhalt would be a major breakthrough for a party that has been classified as right-wing extremist by domestic intelligence authorities in several German states.

Speaking to public broadcaster ZDF, AfD federal leader Alice Weidel said Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives will never win another election.