AfD wins historic state election victory in Saxony-Anhalt but falls short of outright majority
Elon Musk and Europe’s far-right figures today celebrated the historic state election victory of the anti-immigrant AfD party in Germany.
The tech billionaire wrote ’Well done!’ after the party won a decisive victory in Germany’s eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, far ahead of mainstream rivals.
The results put a far-right party within reach of power at the state level for the first time since World War Two.
The surge is thought to rely heavily on nostalgia for life in former communist East Germany and deep-seated economic frustrations that have lingered since the 1990 reunification.
In an interview following the results, AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) co-founder Alice Weidel said she expected the current German Chancellor, center-right Friedrich Merz, to be ’replaced before Christmas’.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the far-right League party Matteo Salvini hailed the victory, declaring that ’another Europe is possible’.
But the party has fallen short of the outright majority needed to govern Saxony-Anhalt alone. It received 43.8 percent of the vote ahead of the conservative Christian Democratic Union’s (CDU) 17.2 percent.
The AfD was pursuing an absolute majority in the state legislature to govern alone and overcome the so-called firewall of mainstream parties’ refusal to work with the group.
Now, tricky negotiations on who will run the state lie ahead, with final results showing the AfD falling three seats short, with 39 lawmakers in an 83-member parliament.
’We have received a very clear mandate to govern here,’ Weidel told reporters.
’We ran on a clear platform of representing the interests of our country, not those of Ukraine or any other country,’ she added.
’If we receive the mandate to govern at the federal level and assume governmental responsibility, we will cut all unnecessary spending. We will control our borders. We will deport all those required to leave the country and all criminals. We will close the borders.
’I also expect early federal elections, and I expect the current chancellor to be replaced before Christmas.’
The AfD more than doubled its showing five years ago in the region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin.
Meanwhile, the CDU, the party of Germany’s unpopular leader, Chancellor Merz, slumped to a disastrous result, winning only 15 seats.
The center-left Social Democrats got 9.3 percent, the Greens 8.9 percent, and the Left Party 8.6 percent, all winning eight seats apiece.
Because the AfD fell just short of an outright majority, it may not end up governing Saxony-Anhalt.
Rival parties have vowed that they would not form a coalition government with the AfD, whose leaders have previously used Nazi slogans and minimized the Holocaust.
French government ministers expressed their worries on Monday over the impact of the victory.
’It clearly sends out a very, very worrying signal,’ French Finance Minister Roland Lescure told RTL radio.
’This shows that we face a major challenge in the face of a populist wave which is spreading around the world today and which we must resist,’ added Lescure.
Lescure’s views echoed similar comments made late on Sunday by France’s European Affairs Minister Benjamin Haddad.
’To see the far-right prevail in the German regional election marks a very grave moment for Europe,’ he wrote on X.
’We must listen with humility to anger, fears, and worries and duly respond to these concerns. But nationalism and xenophobia will never be the answer,’ added Haddad.
Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s lead candidate, rejoiced at the results, saying ’we have written history’.
The anti-migration, Russia-friendly politician told public broadcaster ARD that voters had sent a signal that ’things cannot carry on like this’.
He added that ’a very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz’.
Turnout was very high, at 77.8 percent, with the AfD appearing to have won over many people who did not vote at all five years ago.
Spain’s Vox leader Santiago Abascal called the result ’a great hope for Germany and for Europe,’ while Portugal’s André Ventura celebrated AfD’s ’historic’ victory, linking it to public anger over immigration.
Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Freedom Party in the Netherlands, wrote ’congratulations’ to Siegmund and Weidel on X.
Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, decried the result.
’In Poland, only idiots or traitors can rejoice at the triumph of the AfD in Germany,’ he said.
In its draft government program, the AfD pledged ’deportation from minute one!’ if it wins the election in Saxony-Anhalt.
Its stated goal, according to the party’s election program, is to deport as many immigrants who have no residency permits as possible.
The AfD has also proposed mandatory work for asylum-seekers and intends to cut all state funding for integration programs, which it refers to as an ’asylum industry’.
The party wants to exclude children and adolescents who do not have permanent residency in Germany from attending regular schools.
It also has a highly controversial plan for ’remigration’ which is widely understood to mean mass deportations of migrants, although the AfD says it refers to deporting criminals and those in the country illegally.
The party has been particularly disparaging of the world-famous Bauhaus school of design, which the Nazis shut down in the city of Dessau in Saxony-Anhalt after they rose to power in 1933.
The AfD has called the school an ’aberration of modernism’, prompting some to accuse the party of using similar language to the Nazis.
’The AfD is attacking the Bauhaus, using the very same words the Nazis used 100 years ago,’ Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer said in an AP interview before the election.
’And that is why democrats, whether they lean conservative or left, are fighting back against it.’
The party is aiming to win at least 40 percent in the next federal election after the historic win in the eastern state.
’My stated goal is to significantly widen the gap in a very short time and grow to at least 40 percent for the next federal election,’ said Weidel.
Critics of the group have warned that an AfD-run state, due to the Kremlin-friendly stance of the party, could leak sensitive information to Russia.
For example, since Russia’s full-scale invasion against Ukraine in 2022, Germany has largely halted oil imports, but the AfD’s election platform calls for a rapprochement with Moscow and an end to sanctions.
While the call is largely symbolic, due to the fact that Saxony-Anhalt is bound by federal sanctions, an AfD state premier could set a new tone in the Bundesrat, the chamber of parliament that represents the states.
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