The right-wing Alternative for Germany won in a landslide in Saxony-Anhalt state elections on Sunday. What does that mean for the country at large?
06.09.2026, 23.23 Uhr
AfD politicians Alice Weidel, Ulrich Siegmund and Tino Chrupalla as the election results come in.
The first reaction is horror. That this is possible in Germany, 80 years after the dictatorship of the National Socialists, who were responsible for World War II, the Holocaust and plenty of other horrific acts. That in the year 2026, a party unwilling to draw a sharp line separating itself from Nazi Germany would win an election by a landslide. It remains uncertain who will ultimately govern Saxony-Anhalt – the process of finding a governing majority promises to be challenging – but the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has more than doubled its share of the vote. And its top candidate, Ulrich Siegmund, has a chance of becoming state premier.
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