How the AfD made history by winning in Saxony-Anhalt

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The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is on the verge of leading a state government for the first time in history. According to the preliminary results announced on Monday morning, the AfD achieved 43.8 per cent in the state election of Saxony-Anhalt, more than doubling their voter share compared to the previous election in the state in 2021.

The AfD achieved 43.8 per cent in the state election of Saxony-Anhalt, more than doubling their voter share

Meanwhile, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of chancellor Friedrich Merz, lost 20 per cent and fell to 17.2. The election result from Sunday is not only damaging to the CDU, but to all historically established parties in Germany. They might not be able to prevent the AfD from governing for the first time.

In recent years, the CDU and other parties were usually able to form state governments in some fashion amid the growing success of the AfD, particularly in Germany‘s east. But in Saxony-Anhalt, a state in the former GDR territory with a large rural population, the AfD and it‘s frontrunner Ulrich Siegmund created such a hype in the lead-up to the election, that no one was able to stop them.