“The winner of the election, the AfD, is now the strongest force in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt, and we in the CDU will have to deal with this result,” he said.
The fact that four in 10 voters in Saxony-Anhalt supported the AfD despite its state branch being designated a right-wing extremist organization by the state’s intelligence agency and reports that members of lead candidate Siegmund’s inner circle were part of an organization modeled on the Hitler Youth, speaks to widespread public distrust in mainstream parties, the media, and institutions in eastern Germany — a region that was under communist control during the Cold War.
The party achieved its best result since its founding in 2013 by vowing to deport migrants with a “remigration offensive,” to push for closer relations with Moscow — including by bringing back school exchange programs with Russia — to remove rainbow flags from schools, introduce a “baby welcome grant” of €2,000 for the first two children and €4,000 for each additional child. The party also pledged to reform school curricula to lesson material on Germany’s Nazi past in an effort to end what some of its politicians call a “guilt cult.”
However, the party’s success was apparently due less to its own pledges than to voters’ rejection of mainstream parties, particularly Merz and his conservative bloc. Only 9 percent of voters in Saxony-Anhalt approved of Merz’s performance, according to an ARD exit poll.
Saxony-Anhalt is the German state with the lowest average net income, and economic anxiety — over declining industry and rising energy costs — was a major factor motivating voters. Seventy percent said they were “greatly worried” that rising prices would prevent them from paying their bills, according to an ARD survey, while 58 percent feared they would be unable to maintain their standard of living.
Polls show that the AfD is also leading in the eastern state of Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, where voters go to the ballot on Sept. 20. In Berlin, a traditionally left-wing capital where voters will go to the polls that same day, the AfD is also performing particularly strongly, polling at around 18 percent.
The Saxony-Anhalt result surpasses the AfD’s previous biggest breakthrough in the eastern region of Thuringia, where it won 32.8 percent of the vote in 2024. After that election, the CDU needed to form a minority coalition with left-wing parties.
This story is being updated.
