Tuesday, September 8th 2026 - 09:21 UTC
The polarized nature of the election, with 41% of voters surveyed beforehand wanting an AfD-led government but 46% favouring one led by the CDU, had some surprising effects
By Ed Turner (*)
The results of Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state election on September 6 were far worse than feared for the country’s mainstream political parties. The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) came close to winning a majority of votes, with 43.8%. This was about 4% higher than polls had suggested.
Support for the centre-right Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), on the other hand, imploded. It won 17.2% of the vote, down from 37.1% in 2021, performing substantially worse than predicted.
