Ulrich Siegmund, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)'s main candidate in the Saxony-Anhalt state election, gestures as he addresses supporters at the AfD's election party following Saxony-Anhalt's state elections in Magdeburg, eastern Germany this week.
Maegan Vazquez, Mary Ilyushina
BERLIN - Safely inside the cordon of chain-link fences covered in campaign posters outside the Alternative for Germany’s Berlin headquarters, a crowd of supporters had gathered with beer and bratwurst to await - and celebrate - the results of the biggest election night in the nationalist, anti-immigrant party’s history.
The angry chants of protesters beyond the fences were drowned out by TV news coverage of projections from the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the party, known as the AfD, instantly posted a huge, insurmountable lead with more than 40 percent of the vote.
“We have achieved exactly what we wanted. We have made history,” Ulrich Siegmund, a 35-year-old former salesman turned social media star who led the AfD’s campaign, declared in a victory speech at the party’s headquarters in Magdeburg, the state capital. The result, he added, would “shake all of Germany.”
