Saxony-Anhalt could become the clearest example this Sunday of how far the strategy of Germany’s legacy parties to contain Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has ended up reshaping the country’s entire political system.
Polls put the party at around 40%, well ahead of the CDU, which comfortably won the 2021 regional election. The gap is now too large to dismiss the AfD as a marginal protest vote. The party is clearly on course to become the leading political force in the state.
This weekend I learned two things about Germany.
The first is Hitler did not invent the autobahn. The summer before Hitler’s election, Konrad Adenauer, Oberbürgermeister (mayor) of Cologne, opened the first autobahn. In fact, the Nazis opposed building autobahns until they took office and realized that it was a good boondoggle—staatliche Großarbeitkickbackerei—to reward patrons with no-show jobs and no-bid contracts.
If there was any doubt radical change is under way in Germany, it was answered this weekend by voters in Saxony-Anhalt.
For the first time since the infamous Nazi epoch, a far-right party has claimed victory in a state election. The win by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party – designated an extremist group by domestic intelligence agencies in numerous German states – has shaken the political foundation of Europe. It represented an irrevocable repudiation of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and of mainstream parties more generally.
Supporters of mass immigration seem a little antsy of late.
The hard-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is seeking a pact with Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats so it can form a regional government.
The AfD has been trapped by a firewall policy in which Germany’s centrist parties refuse to co-operate with it at the state or federal level. But after a sweeping election victory on Sunday night, cracks are starting to appear.
Rebels in the German chancellor’s party want to lend their support to the hard-Right AfD, The Telegraph understands.
Preliminary results from the Sunday vote in Saxony-Anhalt region of Germany show the landslide win of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) securing around 43.8% of the vote, earning 39 seats in the 83-member state parliament. Although not an outright majority, the result may be the beginning of the end of the monopoly on power of mainstream establishment forces in Germany.
Official results are expected on Monday night, but the power dynamics are already clear: a huge win for the AfD, and devastating news for Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Voters have clearly expressed their dissatisfaction with the CDU that has governed the region for 24 years: the Chancellor’s party securing only 17.2% of the votes. Merz is expected to discuss the results with his cabinet today and gather a crisis panel in the capital.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is on the verge of leading a state government for the first time in history. According to the preliminary results announced on Monday morning, the AfD achieved 43.8 per cent in the state election of Saxony-Anhalt, more than doubling their voter share compared to the previous election in the state in 2021.
Meanwhile, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of chancellor Friedrich Merz, lost 20 per cent and fell to 17.2. The election result from Sunday is not only damaging to the CDU, but to all historically established parties in Germany. They might not be able to prevent the AfD from governing for the first time.
This "far right" leader Alice Weidel is a lesbian with Sri Lankan-born partner who was adopted as an infant by a Swiss couple. https://t.co/yetAumntUB
— Yvonne C (@CountryGardener) September 6, 2026
In the past few weeks, Germany has seen a drone attack on Leipzig Airport and an arson attack near defense contractors in Bavaria, while explosive devices and pyrotechnics were found at two substations in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia.
As the country enters a September featuring three vital state elections, attacks on critical infrastructure appear to be on the rise, and defense contractors are apparently in the crosshairs.
After some initial hesitation, the German government has now publicly blamed Russia for the Leipzig attack, but could the Kremlin also be behind the other attacks?
Hey ChatGPT! Do German citizens view the US as a threat?
Threat to Global Peace: A survey by the Allensbach Institute shows that 65% of Germans name the United States as one of the greatest dangers to world peace. This figure increased from 24% in 2024 and 46% in 2025. The U.S. now ranks second only to Russia in German threat perceptions.
A 24-year-old man from the African country of Benin is being held in pretrial detention on suspicion of dragging a 27-year-old woman off a sidewalk and raping her in a bush in a small Mecklenburg–Western Pomeranian town. The police are now only reporting the incident four weeks after the initial assault.
Notably, the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has the lowest number of refugees of any German state and, in per capita terms, is the third-lowest.
“Seismic”, “a socio-political earthquake”, “a watershed moment for Germany”.
This was how political analysts and many media outlets described the stunning victory of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in local elections in Germany on Sunday. Is that an exaggeration?
Saxony-Anhalt is one of the smallest of massive Germany’s 16 regions. It boasts a mere 1.7m out of 59m eligible voters nationwide. How significant can its political sentiments be, especially since the AfD narrowly failed to win an outright majority?
The answer: very significant.
The Eurotrash elite seem deathly afraid of any nation seeking to secure there borders. I hope they are prosecuted.
The populist far-right, anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland has emerged as the winner in a crucial state election in Germany, exit polls have projected, but it remains unclear as to whether it will be able to form a government and become the first far-right party to gain power at regional or parliament level since the second world war.
Initial exit polls showed the party to have secured 44.5% of the vote, decisively ahead of the Christian Democrats of the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, in a contest that was being followed across the world.
44.5% for the AfD! 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
Saxony-Anhalt ist cheering.
This is the greatest chance for Germany after Angela Merkel initiated the destruction of our homeland.Thank God heroes like Prime Minister candidate @UlrichSiegmund never gave up. pic.twitter.com/0ZAQVWYarQ
— Naomi Seibt (@NaomiSeibt) September 6, 2026
Saxony-Anhalt: Far-right AfD secures huge lead in key vote
Germany’s ruling conservative party is drawing up plans to overhaul the country’s liberal citizenship laws to fight back against the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Senior figures in Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) are discussing a ban on dual citizenship and tougher language requirements to counter the hard-Right party.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Günter Krings, a senior CDU MP, said previous governments had made gaining German citizenship “too fast and too easy”.
DW one of nearly 30 state funded CBC’s has an election live stream:
Saxony-Anhalt: Far-right AfD eyes power in German state vote
Nine people were injured after a corrosive liquid was reportedly thrown at an information stand belonging to the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party in Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate.
According to the information available and videos circulating on social media, disinfectant was poured from an adjacent building toward the AfD stand. Among those taken to hospital were AfD politicians Nicole Höchst and Sebastian Münzenmaier.
Armed officers from Germany’s elite Spezialeinsatzkommando (SEK) police unit located and stormed a truck thought to belong a man suspected of carrying out acts of sabotage against electrical infrastructure this week (see below).
The truck was located in the village of Niederzier near the town of Düren, in between the cities of Aachen and Cologne in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). One of the substations that was attacked was in the nearby town of Bergheim.
ATHENS — An election Sunday at the German state of Saxony-Anhalt could yield the far-right Alternative for Germany party a breakthrough for an ideology that some had reckoned was long-banished from the European continent.Saxony-Anhalt, with its capital at Magdeburg, is one of Germany’s 16 federal states and was part of the communist German Democratic Republic before the country was reunited in 1990 with the fall of the Soviet Union. The AfD’s leading candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, was once named “Germany’s Most Dangerous Man” by Der Spiegel.
A Syrian refugee residing in the German city of Leipzig has drawn widespread public attention following revelations regarding the extensive state financial support directed to his massive household, alongside an established pattern of criminal behavior among several of his adult sons, including offenses that resulted in the deaths of multiple victims.
h/t kiki9
