Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the largest party in the state assembly of Saxony-Anhalt with its highest vote share ever, propelling Ulrich Siegmund, the 35-year-old candidate who led the campaign, into the top ranks of the country's far right.
The AfD won 43.8% of the vote, beating the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at 17.2%, according to the state election commission on the 7th. The result is more than double the 20.8% the party won in the previous election in 2021 and its best showing in any state or federal election since it was founded.
The center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) took 9.3%, the Greens 8.9% and the Left Party 8.6%. The radical-left Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) cleared the 5% threshold for seats with 5.3%. The pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) failed to enter the assembly with 2.6%.
The AfD fell short of an outright majority, however, leaving it unclear whether it can form a state government. Provisional counts gave the party 39 of the 83 seats, followed by the CDU with 15, the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party with eight each, and the BSW with five.
Musk Comments "Well Done"
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel posted news of the victory on X, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk replied in German, "Gut gemacht!" Siegmund answered in English, thanking Musk for offering a clear and important perspective on his political course and saying he looked forward to constructive cooperation once in office and that Germany would again become an attractive place to invest. Musk also voiced support for the AfD at an online party event in January last year.
International reaction was divided. U.S. President Donald Trump shared a chart of the parties' vote shares on social media, and Kirill Dmitriev, Russia's presidential envoy for economic cooperation, cited it in calling the outcome a historic victory for a pragmatic AfD.
"The Most Dangerous Man in Germany"
Siegmund stands at the center of the surge. Born in 1990, he ran an air-freshener business before joining the AfD in 2014. With millions of followers, he has used a clean-cut image and simple messaging to blunt criticism of the party's far-right platform. His popularity inside the party, where he has been called "everyone's darling" and the type of man mothers-in-law adore, drew a note of envy from some colleagues.
His politics, however, are those of a hard-line far-right figure. In November 2023 he attended a secret meeting in Potsdam where neo-Nazi figures discussed the mass deportation of immigrants, and at one campaign rally supporters chanted "Sieg Mund," a play on the Nazi slogan "Sieg Heil." The weekly Der Spiegel has called him the most dangerous man in Germany.
European Politicians and Business Wary
Politicians and business groups across Europe voiced alarm. Benjamin Haddad, France's minister for Europe, said nationalism and xenophobia could not be a solution, while Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said only fools or traitors would celebrate the AfD's victory.
The German Economic Institute (IW) warned that the AfD's restrictive immigration policy would have disastrous consequences for Saxony-Anhalt, a state heavily dependent on foreign labor. Some observers worry that sensitive intelligence could leak to Russia if the pro-Moscow party runs the state government. The AfD says domestic intelligence agencies are biased and has pledged to overhaul them.
