Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) candidate André Barth has been elected mayor of Altenberg after winning a clear majority in the first round of voting on Sunday, January 25th. Official results show that Barth received 61.3% of the votes, making a run-off election unnecessary.
The vote took place in Altenberg, a well-known winter sports town in Saxony’s Erzgebirge region. Voter turnout reached 70.8%, a notably high level for a mayoral election. Barth, who is also a member of the Saxon state parliament, had already been serving as acting mayor prior to the election.
The non-partisan candidate Johanna Franz finished second. Steffen Götze of the Geising Voters’ Association received 7.6% of the vote, while two other independent candidates secured 4.9% and 4.4% respectively.
The election was held following the resignation of the previous mayor, Markus Wiesenberg of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who stepped down in mid-2025.
Although AfD mayoral victories in Saxony remain relatively uncommon, the result in Altenberg follows similar outcomes in recent years, including the election of Tim Lochner as Lord Mayor of Pirna in late 2023 and Rolf Weigand’s victory in Großschirma in 2024.
The AfD continues to perform strongly at the national level too. According to a recent survey conducted by the opinion research institute GMS, the AfD leads federal voting preferences with 27% support, ahead of the CDU/CSU at 24%. The Social Democrats stand at 15%, followed by the Greens at 12% and The Left at 10%.
