Far-right AfD projected to win Saxony-Anhalt election but may fall short of majority Projections put the far-right AfD at about 44 per cent in Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state election, far ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU, but likely just short of an absolute majority. AfD leaders call the result historic while mainstream parties say they will not work with it. Projections for ARD and ZDF public television, based on exit polls and early counting, placed the far-right Alternative for Germany at about 44 per cent in Saxony-Anhalt’s Sunday regional election. That is more than double the AfD’s share from five years ago in the eastern state of 2.1 million people. The party appeared at least marginally short of the absolute majority it sought to govern alone, leaving open whether Germany will see its first far-right state government since the Second World War. Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s charismatic 35-year-old candidate for governor, told ARD: ‘We have written history.’ Voters, he said, sent a signal that ‘things cannot carry on like this’ and that the result was ‘also a signal toward Berlin. ’ Siegmund said of Chancellor Friedrich Merz: ‘A very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz. Every day this man is in the chancellery is one too many. ’ AfD national co-leader Alice Weidel called the projected result ‘sensational’ and said ‘we have received a very clear mandate to govern here.’ She said the party’s ‘hand is outstretched to all who want to make Saxony-Anhalt better and move Germany forward. ’ The anti-migration AfD went into the vote seeking an absolute majority so it could govern alone. That would bypass the firewall of mainstream parties’ refusal to work with it. A first state government would be the biggest prize in the party’s 13-year history at a time of widespread discontent with Germany’s unpopular national government.That government has yet to persuade voters it can get the country’s sluggish economy moving. The result also is a symbolic blow to Chancellor Merz and the CDU, which has led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years. Projections put the CDU at 18.5 per cent, about half its previous support. Incumbent governor Sven Schulze congratulated the AfD on becoming the state’s strongest political force and said ‘we as the CDU will also have to deal with this result,’ without saying how.Franziska Hoppermann, national general secretary of Merz’s CDU, called it ‘a very difficult result for us’ and said mainstream figures continued to reject working with the AfD. Projections showed the Left Party at about nine per cent and the Social Democrats and Greens at eight to nine per cent each. It was unclear whether the left-wing BSW party would cross the five per cent threshold needed to win seats.Germany’s 16 states have extensive powers, including oversight of security matters and running the education system. The AfD is the biggest opposition party in the national parliament and is strongest in the formerly communist and less prosperous east, where Saxony-Anhalt lies. Modern Germany has not yet had a far-right party leading a national, state or major-city government. The AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt regional branch is one of several classified by the domestic intelligence agency as a proven right-wing extremist group.The AfD vehemently rejects accusations of extremism. Siegmund has listed as top priorities ‘the deportation of people who are illegal, a deportation offensive and above all dropping the incentives for why people come here and exploit our social system. ’ He wants to begin a long process of withdrawing the state from the regional public broadcaster, citing ‘disinformation’ concerns. The state AfD wants home schooling allowed, which is not currently permitted in Germany.It pledges to ban schools from officially raising the rainbow flag and to ensure they fly the national flag. It opposes taxpayer money being ‘given away’ to Ukraine and says it would push to lift sanctions against Russia, although state governments cannot decide that issue. Whether the AfD reaches an absolute majority may still change as final counting continues. Its projected success has already shaken Saxony-Anhalt’s established political order.