The Alternative for Germany party has doubled its results in Saxony-Anhalt, according to first exit polls at 6 pm local time, to roughly 44.1%, while Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats halve their 2021 results, dropping from 18.6% to 18.5%. It is still unclear whether the AfD will have enough seats to govern its first German state alone.
The AfD is currently projected to take 44.1% of the state, up 23.3% over 2021, more than doubling its results.
Speaking on ZDF TV, party chair Alice Weidel called the results “historic” and said the AfD has a mandate to form a government in the East German state of Saxony-Anhalt. “We will speak to anyone who is interested in working with us”, Weidel said. All other parties have so far excluded working with the AfD, reinforcing the so-called “firewall”.
According to current projections, the AfD falls one seat short of the 42 seats out of 83 needed to govern the state alone. If the legacy parties want to rule without the AfD according to these projected numbers, the Christian Democrats would have to form a coalition with all leftist parties, including the former East German Communist party Die Linke.
Election participation was 78%, up 18% from 60% in 2021, as East Germans came out in droves. ZDF reported that 42% of today’s AfD voters were non-voters in 2021.
More to come.
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