According to preliminary results, AfD received 43.8% of the vote — 23 percentage points more than in 2021 — and 39 of 83 seats in the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament. The CDU came second with 17.2% and 15 seats, the SPD received 9.3% and 8 seats, the Greens/Alliance 90 — 8.9% and 8 seats, the Left — 8.6% and 8 seats, and the BSW entered parliament with 5.3% and 5 seats.
AfD is three seats short of being able to form a government on its own, although the party still has a chance to lead the region. A potential coalition of the CDU, SPD, and Greens has only 31 seats and does not even reach a majority with the Left, while the other mainstream parties do not cooperate with AfD.
The newly elected state parliament must convene no later than 30 days after the vote — by October 6 — after which lawmakers will begin electing a minister-president. If a head of government still cannot be elected then, the state parliament must vote to dissolve itself within 14 days; this again requires an absolute majority.
The director of the Berlin Center for the Study of Eastern Europe in Germany, Dmitry Stratievskiy, called AfD’s branch in Saxony-Anhalt one of the most far-right in the country. He noted that the state office for the protection of the constitution had classified the local organization as “definitely right-wing extremist” and that it is dominated by the wing associated with Björn Höcke.
Stratievskiy also noted that AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund had built an image of a young, charismatic, and supposedly moderate leader. Political scientist Alex Yusupov, in turn, said that AfD’s result is record-breaking and specific to this state, where 1.9 million voters make up about 3% of the German electorate, and the party managed to mobilize protest voters from virtually all parties.
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