Saxony-Anhalt, Germany's sixth-smallest state by population, has drawn attention across Europe. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), long at the center of controversy over remarks defending the Nazi era, may take control of a state government for the first time since the Nazi defeat. The party has grown by using the economically lagging former East Germany as its base, and the outcome could further cement Europe's rightward shift.
German public broadcaster ZDF reported on the 7th that the AfD won a landslide in the previous day's state assembly election in eastern Saxony-Anhalt, taking more than 43.8% of the vote. The party secured 39 of the 83 seats, falling short of the 42 needed for a majority but leaving it in a strong position in the selection of the state premier. Incumbent Premier Sven Schulze's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) took just 17.2%.
If the AfD secures the premiership, it would mark the first far-right state government in Germany in more than 80 years since the Nazi defeat. Since its founding in 2013, the AfD has produced a handful of mayors in small municipalities but has never governed at the state level.
The AfD's stronghold is the former East Germany, which lags the west economically and has fewer immigrants. Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where a state election is scheduled for the 20th, were both part of East Germany. AfD lawmakers have chanted slogans of the Nazi storm troopers at campaign rallies and given Nazi-style salutes. But as discontent grew in the relatively underdeveloped east over the federal government's welcoming immigration policy and rising energy costs, the AfD has become the largest opposition party, holding 152 of the 630 seats in the federal parliament.
The state's electoral rules also favor the AfD. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round, voting proceeds through as many as three rounds, and in the third round abstentions are excluded from the denominator. Even if all other parties vote against the AfD in the third round, the party would win 39 to 38 if six lawmakers abstain.
The ball is now in the court of Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his center-right CDU. Merz formed a coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to build a firm firewall against the AfD. But with the SPD repeatedly blocking his core policies, Merz has recorded the worst approval ratings of any chancellor. With discontent already growing within the CDU, pushing for another coalition to keep the AfD out of power in Saxony-Anhalt would likely narrow his standing in the party further. Yet helping the AfD into power could trigger a backlash from the SPD.
