Germany's far-right achieves an electoral breakthrough in key state 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 populist, far-right Alternative for Germany party has declared victory in the state of Saxony-Anhalt after more than doubling its share of the vote in the first of several regional elections this fall.

Falling just shy of an absolute majority to form the regional government, it's not yet clear whether the AfD will govern Saxony-Anhalt. But the outcome is already causing a political earthquake.

According to preliminary final results, the AfD won 43.8% of the vote — its strongest performance in any German state election, which puts the far-right party within reach of power for the first time since the time of Nazi Germany.

The center-right Christian Democratic Union more than halved its share of the vote, falling to a historic low of 17.2%. The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) received 9.3%, the Greens 8.9%, and the Left party 8.6%.

All of these parties refuse to form a coalition with the AfD. But the AfD can come to power with the help of BSW, a small, anti-immigration, left-wing populist party. BSW got 5.3% of the vote on Sunday, potentially giving it enough seats to form a parliamentary majority with the AfD — something the party has not ruled out.

AfD's candidate for state governor, Ulrich Siegmund, said the result "sends a very clear signal to Berlin: this is the end of the line; people don't want to go on like this." "They want their good, old, secure Germany back," Siegmund told German public broadcaster, ARD.

Christian Democrat candidate Sven Schulze took to the stage on Sunday evening to congratulate the AfD on its win. While polls had shown the AfD with a comfortable lead for weeks, the CDU fared worse than predicted.