According to exit poll results, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has scored an unprecedented victory in Saxony-Anhalt today.
As of 9 p.m., the AfD was projected to have reached 44%, a staggering 23.2% increase compared to its result in the last election.
AfD co-chair Alice Weidel declared on X on Sunday night that her party has been given “a mandate to govern” by voters, and congratulated lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund and the Saxony-Anhalt chapter of AfD. She also stressed the AfD is now “more than twice as strong as the CDU.”
Sachsen-Anhalt hat gesprochen: Die AfD ist mit 44,2% mehr als doppelt so stark wie die CDU und hat einen Regierungsauftrag erhalten. Gratulation an Ulrich Siegmund und die AfD Sachsen-Anhalt! pic.twitter.com/MgRc4fgm7R
— Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel) September 6, 2026
The CDU’s support has in fact halved, with the currently governing party achieving second place with 17.8%. Radical left-wing Die Linke garnered an 8.8% support, slightly down from its previous result, while the SPD is expected to get 9.1%, the Greens 8.7%, and left-wing nationalist BSW just over 5%, the parliamentary threshold.
Former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán congratulated Weidel, Siegmund and the “entire AfD” on their “landslide victory,” adding “Buckle up. This is just the beginning!”
According to projections, the AfD is set to receive 39 of the 83 seats in the state parliament, the CDU 16. Die Linke will win 8 seats, the SPD 8 seats, and the Greens also 8 seats. The BSW is projected to win 4 seats, according to ARD’s forecast.
AfD’s absolute majority appears to depend on whether BSW manages to enter the state parliament: if it remains below 5%, an absolute majority would be possible.
Whether the right-wing populist party will be able to form a government on its own in Saxony-Anhalt remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that the party has written history, and the election result in the Eastern German state has a significance beyond itself. As Junge Freiheit chief editor Dieter Stein stated in his commentary tonight,
The election in Saxony-Anhalt shows that the left-wing culture war against conservative and right-wing positions, supported by the German elites, the media, churches, trade unions, and employers’ associations, has come to an end.
