{"id":85855,"date":"2026-09-06T06:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T06:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/85855\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T06:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T06:03:13","slug":"germanys-far-right-afd-seeks-landmark-state-win-in-closely-watched-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/85855\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany\u2019s far-right AfD seeks landmark state win in closely-watched vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party co leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, and the party’s top candidate Ulrich Siegmund, attend AfD’s final rally before the upcoming Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Magdeburg, Germany, on Saturday.Fabrizio Bensch\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Voters in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt will go to the polls on Sunday in a closely watched election that could see the Alternative for Germany (AfD) become the first far-right party to take power at a state level since the World War Two.<\/p>\n

Under the smiling 35-year-old leader Ulrich Siegmund, the party has been polling comfortably ahead for months, and there is a genuine chance the AfD could take an absolute majority on Sunday evening, particularly if several smaller parties fail to clear Germany\u2019s 5 per cent threshold to enter parliament. <\/p>\n

The vote is being closely watched as a barometer for the government of the deeply unpopular Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has attempted to chip away at the AfD\u2019s popularity by taking a tougher line on migration and security.<\/p>\n

Recent surveys place the AfD at just over 40 per cent, followed by Merz\u2019s Christian Democrats (CDU) at 23 per cent. <\/p>\n

An absolute majority would allow the AfD to bypass mainstream parties\u2019 efforts to keep the party blocked out of power by refusing to work with it under a longstanding \u201cfirewall\u201d policy.<\/p>\n

More than 15,000 protest in Germany as far-right AfD party meets<\/a><\/p>\n

Achieving an absolute majority is a high bar to clear in Germany\u2019s proportional electoral system, which was designed in part to encourage coalition governments and make it difficult for one party to rule alone. <\/p>\n

If the AfD falls short of an outright majority, a CDU-led administration under incumbent state premier Sven Schulze is the most likely outcome, though the exact shape of any coalition would depend on which parties enter. <\/p>\n

Weeks of coalition talks could follow Sunday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n

For the AfD, the Saxony-Anhalt election is a stepping stone towards its larger ambitions of securing national power in the next federal election scheduled for 2029. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter the outcome of tomorrow\u2019s election, we have already made history,\u201d said Siegmund at a final rally on Saturday evening. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause what we have started here in Saxony-Anhalt \u2013 what is currently sweeping across all of Germany \u2013 can no longer be stopped,\u201d he told the crowd in Saxony-Anhalt\u2019s capital, Magdeburg. <\/p>\n

However, without an absolute majority, the AfD, which has been classified as \u201cfar-right extremist\u201d by the state security service, would struggle to enter government due to the firewall.<\/p>\n

Such a result opens the prospect of complex coalition negotiations, dependent on which parties can hit the 5 per cent hurdle. <\/p>\n

Polls show one of the CDU\u2019s current coalition partners, the FDP, falling short, while the other, the SPD, is under 10 per cent. <\/p>\n

The small far-left BSW, the only party that has not ruled out a coalition with the AfD, is also likely to miss out. <\/p>\n

For Schulze, who is favoured in polls as voters\u2019 top choice for leader, combining with the SPD and Greens might not be enough for a majority, but the CDU has ruled out a coalition with the far-left Left Party that could help it reach that threshold. <\/p>\n

One option could be a minority government led by Schulze that would depend on passive tolerance from the Left \u2013 a model used in the neighbouring eastern German state of Thuringia. <\/p>\n

Initial results are expected around 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Sunday evening shortly after polls close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party co leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3711,3701,3712,3694,3692,3713,2042,3691,3706,3707,3703,3693,3690,95,1384,1442,3705,3699,5,3724,3695,3696,1235,3702,96,1304,3714,3698,3719,3720,3722,3717,3721,3715,3718,3697,3709,3710,358,3708,3716,3700,43,537,3704,2469,46,3723],"class_list":["post-85855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-germany","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}