The German far-right party AfD has taken a commanding lead in Sunday's Saxony-Anhalt vote, but could not secure enough seats to form a majority.
Final results showed AfD receiving 43.8% of the vote, more than double its showing five years ago in the region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin. However, falling three seats short, with 39 lawmakers in an 83-member parliament.
Meanwhile, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of Germany’s unpopular leader, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, slumped to a disastrous result in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, with only 17.2% of the vote, and won 15 seats.
The centre-left Social Democrats got 9.3%, the Greens 8.9% and the Left Party 8.6%, all winning 8 seats apiece.
“We have written history,” said Ulrich Siegmund, the anti-migration, Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany’s candidate for governor, and added that the party now has a clear mandate to govern. The 35-year-old politician told public broadcaster ARD that voters had sent a signal that “things cannot carry on like this.” He said that “a very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz.”
