Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) celebrated a historic win in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt but failed to secure a majority to govern alone after winning 43.8% of the vote.
The result gives the AfD 39 of the state parliament’s 83 seats, just three short of the 42 needed for an outright majority. Official results from the elections gave the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a distant second place with 17.2% and 15 seats.
This was the AfD’s best ever result in a German state election and more than double its share in Saxony-Anhalt in 2021. The state election authority said the turnout was 77.8 per cent.
The AfD now has to find enough support to make a government. The mainstream parties have long refused to work with the party, leaving the makeup of the next state government uncertain.
Beatrix von Storch, deputy chairwoman of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, urged other parties to talk to the AfD.
She told the BBC, “I accept the people's vote,” adding the election result should give other parties something to think about.
Von Storch said the AfD was already in contact with people in the CDU unhappy with the direction their party was taking. However, the CDU has ruled out cooperation with the AfD.
Ulrich Siegmund, the top AfD candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, also said the party had received a mandate to govern. Discussions with other political formations had begun and could take days or weeks, he said.
The AfD is trying to do the same as other parties think about how they might govern. The AfD is now in the newly elected parliament alongside the CDU, SPD, Greens, Left Party and BSW, which could complicate coalition negotiations.
Saxony-Anhalt, home to about 2.1 million people, is closely watched because the AfD's state organisation has been classified as right-wing extremist by the state’s domestic intelligence agency. Die AfD wendet sich dagegen.
If the party does eventually enter government, it would be the first time a far-right party has led a German state government since the end of the Second World War.
The election also dealt a blow to the CDU, with the German public broadcaster reporting that it was its worst result in Saxony-Anhalt with 17.2%.
For now the AfD's victory has given it the most powerful position in the new parliament, but not the numbers to govern alone. The next round of talks will determine whether it can turn its electoral success into political power.
