AfD Projected To Win Big Lead In Saxony-Anhalt State Election

Exit polls from Saxony-Anhalt, an eastern German state, project the far-right Alternative for Germany party, known as the AfD, winning between roughly 44 and 45 percent of the vote in Sunday’s state election, according to NPR.

The same exit polls show the Christian Democratic Union, the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, taking about 18.5 percent, roughly half of what it won in the state’s 2021 election. The AfD’s projected share is up from 20.8 percent in that same 2021 vote.

It remained unclear after the exit polls whether the AfD would win enough seats to form a governing majority on its own. If the party does end up leading Saxony-Anhalt’s government, it would mark the first time since World War II that a far-right party has controlled a German state government.

Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s 35-year-old candidate in Saxony-Anhalt and a former marketing professional, said after the results came in that the outcome made history. AfD federal leader Alice Weidel said the party was seeing explosive growth in the state.

Domestic intelligence agencies in several German states have classified the AfD as right-wing extremist. The party also leads national polling in Germany and has campaigned on anti-immigration positions, including mass deportations.