The story so far: The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won a major victory in the regional election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. It won 39 seats of the 83-member state parliament, falling just three seats short of an absolute majority.

Who is the AfD?

The AfD was established in 2013 as a direct rejoinder to then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policies on the Euro, which advocated for fiscal austerity and structural reforms in order to keep the Eurozone intact. To criticisms of such policies, she would often say that these reforms were ‘without alternative’ (alternativlos), leading to the emergence of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.

While the party was initially mobilised along the lines of being anti-Euro (against the single currency regime), Ms. Merkel’s open-door refugee policy in 2015 led the party to be increasingly consolidated around anti-immigration lines. One of its most popular and controversial policy demands has been the concept of ‘remigration’, which advocates for the return of non-ethnic German citizens, particularly those from Muslim countries, to their country of origin.

These views and policies have led to the party being branded as extremist — with it often being compared to Hitler’s Nazi party (a branding that the AfD systematically rejects). The Verfassungsschutz, or the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, has branded the party as a ‘right-wing extremist’ organisation. The agency stated that the party did not consider citizens of a “migration background from predominantly Muslim countries” as equal members of the German nation. Other political parties have also adopted a similar view by invoking a ‘political firewall’ or Brandmauer against AfD, wherein they refuse to co-operate or ally with the party in any way whatsoever.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the party had been campaigning on multiple demands. With respect to migration policy, it has propounded remigration as well as an overhaul of the refugee policy. It has said that it will start deporting irregular migrants from day one and that mass detention facilities would be expanded. Ulrich Siegmund, who was the lead candidate for the AfD in the State election and won 49 % of the votes, has listed among his top priorities “a deportation offensive” and dropping incentives for people to come to Germany to “exploit our social system”.

With respect to education, the party has said that it will make homeschooling, which is currently banned, legal; that the school curriculum would be reformed, as it is ‘overtly focused’ on the Nazi regime; and that instead of rainbow flags, only the German national flag would be hoisted in schools. It has also floated the idea of separate classes/schools for children of asylum seekers.

It has said that it will change the state’s slogan of ‘Think Modern’ to ‘Think German’. Some critics have drawn parallels between AfD’s political playbook and U.S. President Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) model, where the party reiterates German identity in purely ethnic terms, drawing on earlier imaginings or nostalgia for a brighter and stronger nation, by promoting policies which isolate the country from regional and larger world groupings, mainly the European Union, using ethno-nationalist tropes.

The party has also repeatedly downplayed the effect of climate change; in Saxony-Anhalt, it has vowed to halt wind farms, even as the region is one of the leading states in Germany’s transition to renewable energy.

What happened in Saxony-Anhalt?

Germany has 16 federal states, with each state conducting its own election every five years. Saxony-Anhalt is one of the smallest states, which lies towards the eastern side. The state used to be under communist rule as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), till the 1990s, when the country was finally reunified after the fall of the Berlin Wall. However, eastern states have often felt left out and ignored by the ruling ‘western’ establishment. Most former GDR citizens allege that they remain underrepresented at higher levels of government and in media and have less economic benefits than the western region.

The 2020 Annual Report on the Status of German Unity, released in 2021, stated that while the eastern region has tremendously improved its economic fortunes since reunification, it still has not caught up to western Germany’s urban living standards. Eastern full-time employees earned about 86% of the western average. More importantly, the report talked about how there was still a notion of dissatisfaction among former GDR citizens, often shaped by the impact of the previous communist rule, the intense economic restructuring following reunification, as well as cultural changes.

The AfD has been quick to capture and exacerbate this sentiment; the party has been making steady gains in the eastern region for quite some time now. In 2017, it became the second-largest party in the region, winning 21.9% of the vote, while across Germany as a whole it only had a vote share of 12.6%.

What is the significance of the win?

While the state of Saxony-Anhalt is relatively small, with just 1.7 million voters out of 59 million voters nationwide, the result holds immense significance.

Domestically, if the AfD is to form a government in the state, it will have overarching powers regarding education and security issues. It will also get four seats in the upper house of the German Parliament, the Bundesrat, which represents the 16 states of the country. However, since the party falls short of an absolute majority, it is yet unclear how it expects to govern. While Mr. Siegmund had earlier remarked that the party wouldn’t engage in “games” such as a minority government, he has now said that he will be waiting with an “outstretched hand”. Moreover, the ‘firewall’ in German Parliament further complicates coalition talks.

AfD’s rise in the elections is also an indictment of the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The cost of living crisis, stoked by inflation due to rising energy prices because of the war in West Asia and sanctions on Russia, has hit the state of Saxony-Anhalt quite hard. The people in the country generally feel that the Chancellor has not held up his promise to ensure fiscal discipline and revive the stagnating German economy. Mr. Merz has said that he was “deeply shocked” by the election results.

Internationally, the rise of the AfD spells trouble for the EU, as the party has been quite Euro-sceptic. It has often remarked that leaving the EU is necessary for its reforms to be implemented. At the same time, it has also said that a hard break would be counterproductive and that it would be better to ease into a looser organisation of European states. It has also advocated leaving the single currency system.

The party has also been severely critical of the support for Ukraine in the ongoing Russia- Ukraine war and has said that it will push back against sanctions on Russia, and revive energy deals and economic ties with Moscow.

What next?

Germany has two more state elections coming up, with the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, also a former GDR state, and the capital city of Berlin both going to the polls on September 20. The AfD is leading the opinion polls in the former, with its current win bound to give local leadership in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern a major boost.

Published – September 08, 2026 11:58 am IST

The far-right Alternative for Germany party surged to a resounding victory in a regional election on Sunday (September 6, 2026), but fell a little short of winning a majority in its quest to form the country’s first far-right state government since World War II.

The party of Germany’s unpopular leader, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, slumped to a disastrous result in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. The anti-migration and Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany’s candidate for Governor said that “we have written history” and the party has a clear mandate to govern.

Ulrich Siegmund, 35, told public broadcaster ARD that voters had sent a signal that “things cannot carry on like this.” He said that “a very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz.”

AfD wanted to govern on its own

Alternative for Germany, or AfD, was seeking an absolute majority in the state legislature to govern alone and overcome the so-called firewall of mainstream parties’ refusal to work with AfD.

Final results showed AfD falling three seats short, with 39 lawmakers in an 83-member parliament. Mr. Siegmund said it wouldn’t engage in “games” such as a minority government. But it wasn’t evident how its divided opponents could assemble any stable government without it.

A first state government would be the biggest prize in the anti-migration party’s 13-year history, at a time of widespread discontent with a national government that has yet to persuade voters that it can get the country’s sluggish economy moving.

Whether or not AfD ends up governing, the result is a blow to Mr. Merz, whose centre-right party has led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years.

Unlike other countries in Europe, modern Germany hasn’t yet had a far-right or right-wing populist party leading a national, state or major-city government.

AfD is the biggest opposition party in Germany’s national parliament and is strongest in the formerly communist and less prosperous east, where Saxony-Anhalt is located.

Its regional branch in Saxony-Anhalt is one of several classified as a proven right-wing extremist group by the domestic intelligence agency, which points to members’ denigration of migrants from Muslim countries among other things.

The party talks of “remigration,” a politically charged term for the deportation of immigrants. Its leader in a neighbouring state appealed two convictions for knowingly using a Nazi slogan.

AfD vehemently rejects accusations of extremism and says they’re politically motivated.

Big decline for German leader’s party

AfD won 43.8% of the vote, more than double its showing five years ago in the region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin.

That was far ahead of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, which polled 17.2% — losing about half its support — and won 15 seats. The centre-left Social Democrats polled 9.3%, the Greens 8.9% and the Left Party 8.6%, winning eight seats apiece.

The BSW party, which has said it wouldn’t elect either Siegmund or incumbent Sven Schulze as Governor but criticises the “firewall” against AfD, took 5.3% and fives seats.

Turnout was very high at 77.8%. AfD appeared to have won over many people who didn’t vote at all five years ago.

AfD’s national co-leader, Alice Weidel, described the result as “sensational” and said that “we have received a very clear mandate to govern here.” The party’s “hand is outstretched to all who want to make Saxony-Anhalt better and move Germany forward,” she said. It may hope to attract defectors from other parties.

Mr. Schulze congratulated AfD on becoming the state’s strongest political force and said that “we as the CDU will also have to deal with this result,” without specifying how.

Franziska Hoppermann, the national general secretary of Mr. Merz’s party, rejected backing off its refusal to deal with AfD.

“AfD is a right-wing extremist party. It wants to leave the euro; that would be economic downfall … it works closely together with Russia, it wants a completely different social model,” she said. “We will not work with them.” Once previously. AfD won a state election but didn’t end up governing. That was two years ago in neighbouring Thuringia, where a CDU Governor took power with a minority government, but AfD was much further short of a majority there.

Any attempt by Mr. Schulze to put together an alliance against AfD would be delicate because it would require at least some tacit support from the Left Party, a hard-left party with which the CDU refuses to form coalitions.

Germany’s states have extensive powers

Germany’s 16 states have extensive powers, for example in overseeing security matters and running the education system.

Mr. Siegmund has listed among his top priorities “a deportation offensive” and dropping incentives for people to come to Germany and “exploit our social system.” He wants to initiate a long process to withdraw Saxony-Anhalt from the regional public broadcaster, citing concerns about “disinformation.” AfD in Saxony-Anhalt wants to allow home schooling, which so far isn’t permitted in Germany. It pledges to ban schools from officially raising the rainbow flag and ensure they fly the national flag. It opposes taxpayers’ money being “given away” to Ukraine and says it would push to lift sanctions against Russia, but that isn’t a matter state governments can decide.

The 16 states’ governments also sit in Germany’s upper house of parliament, which has to approve some government legislation. The influence there of Saxony-Anhalt, one of the smaller states in a nation of 83.5 people, is limited — it controls four of the 69 votes.

Published – September 07, 2026 09:38 am IST

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Solingen, Germany, on September 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: via Reuters

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the first far-right party to win a state legislature election in Germany since World War Two

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the results of two regional elections that saw big wins for the far-right AfD and losses for his coalition “bitter” and urged mainstream parties to form governments without “right-wing extremists”.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the first far-right party to win a state legislature election in Germany since World War Two with its result in weekend voting in Thuringia. It came a close second behind the conservatives in Saxony, projections late on Sunday showed.

ALSO READ: Björn Höcke | AfD’s rabble-rouser

But the AfD, deemed “right-wing extremist” by security officials in both of the east German states, is unlikely to be able to govern as other parties have so far refused to collaborate with it to form a majority.

Still, the nationalist, anti-migration and Russia-friendly party could end up with enough seats in both states to block decisions requiring a two-thirds majority such as the appointment of judges or top security officials, giving it unprecedented power.

“The results for the AfD in Saxony and Thuringia are worrying,” Mr. Scholz said in a statement to Reuters. He clarified he was talking as a lawmaker for his centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

“Our country cannot and must not get used to this. The AfD is damaging Germany. It is weakening the economy, dividing society and ruining our country’s reputation.”

With a year to go until Germany’s national election, the results on Sunday punished Mr. Scholz’s fractious coalition, which could aggravate infighting.

All three ruling parties lost votes, with only his SPD comfortably clearing the 5% threshold needed to stay in the two states’ parliaments.

Populist leftist newcomer, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), founded by a former member of the East German Communist Party, did better than all of three coalition partners in its first state elections, coming in third place.

“Sunday’s election results are bitter — for us too,” Mr. Scholz said. But he noted that the more dire predictions, that the SPD might fall out of a state parliament for the first time, had not materialised.

Junior coalition partners the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats both fell out of the Thuringia state assembly.

Sunday’s results could also pressure the government to be tougher on immigration and intensify the debate over support for Ukraine, issues that dominated the campaign.

With a portrait of party leader Sara Wagenknecht and the slogan ‘ War or Peace’ the new founded German party Alliance Sarah Wagenknecht campaigning for votes for the European Parliament on a campaign poster in Berlin, Germany on May 30, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

An unpopular government with a reputation for constant infighting. An economy stuck in a rut. A strong far-right party that has been embarrassed by its leading candidate and alienated its European allies. And a mainstream opposition still working on its recovery.

German politics are in a disgruntled, volatile state as the country’s voters prepare to fill 96 of the 720 seats at the European Parliament on June 9, the biggest single national contingent in the 27-nation European Union.

It’s the first nationwide vote since center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz took power in late 2021, ending the 16-year reign of center-right predecessor Angela Merkel. Her era was marked by often consensual politics and a string of “grand coalition” governments between the traditional major parties of right and left.

That cosiness, already tested during Ms. Merkel’s time by a series of crises and the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany(AfD), is well and truly over.

“This European election is taking place in the context of an economic crisis, but also a government crisis, because the government … really has very low popularity ratings,” said Johannes Hillje, a Berlin-based political consultant. Voters are likely to use the vote to signal their discontent, he added.

Mr. Scholz says that “confidence is … the best remedy against extremism” in turbulent times. But his government hasn’t generated much confidence.

The Social Democrat’s coalition with the environmentalist Greens and pro-business Free Democrats has achievements to its name. Those include preventing an energy crunch after Russia cut off its gas supplies to Germany, extensive aid for Ukraine — though details of that have caused friction — and a series of socially liberal reforms.

But the overwhelming impression of a government that set out to modernize Germany has been one of constant discord, as the economy, Europe’s biggest, struggles to generate growth.

The coalition infighting hasn’t taken a break for the election. The partners are arguing about how to put together a 2025 budget while adhering to Germany’s tight self-imposed rules on running up debt. That quandary already forced a hasty, court-mandated rehash of the 2024 budget, complete with subsidy cuts that prompted protests by farmers.

Opposition leader Friedrich Merz told parliament earlier this year that the government is “governing against the majority of voters and the population in Germany.” He lamented that the mood was “full of doubt and uncertainty.”

Mr. Merz has sought to give his party, once led by the centrist Ms. Merkel, a sharper conservative profile since he took over after its 2021 election defeat.

His Union bloc has benefited only partly from the unpopularity of Mr. Scholz and his coalition; while surveys have given it a clear lead, it’s struggling to get its support above an unspectacular 30% of the vote. There are questions over how much the 68-year-old Mr. Merz, a one-time rival of Ms. Merkel with no government experience, appeals to voters.

It’s not yet clear who will challenge Mr. Scholz in a national election expected in the fall of 2025. The Union plans to decide after three state elections in September in Germany’s former communist east.

The European Parliament vote and those state votes in three strongholds will test AfD, which fed on widespread discontent to garner support of more than 20% for a while.

A series of recent setbacks appears to have pushed it down somewhat. First came a media report in January that extremists met to discuss the deportation of millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship, and that some figures from the party attended. The report triggered mass protests against the rise of the far-right.

Last month, an assistant to Maximilian Krah, AfD’s top candidate in the European election, was arrested on suspicion of spying for China. Its No. 2 candidate, Petr Bystron, faces an investigation after denying allegations he may have received money from a pro-Russia network. The party already faced criticism for having Russia-friendly positions.

AfD then banned Mr. Krah from making campaign appearances after he told an Italian newspaper that not all members of the Nazis’ elite SS unit were war criminals. That wasn’t enough to prevent the party being kicked out of the hard-right Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament.

Separately, a court ruled that one of AfD’s best-known figures, Björn Höcke, knowingly used a Nazi slogan in a 2021 speech and fined him.

“Instead of being able to speak about its own position, it has to comment on scandals and allegations in the media every week,” Mr. Hillje said. AfD’s solid core of voters won’t be put off, but “those who aren’t entirely sure whether they should vote AfD could rethink as a result of these scandals and allegations.”

AfD still looks set to make gains from the 11% of the vote it took in the 2019 European Parliament election, though perhaps not as many as it hoped.

Some observers believe a new party founded by prominent opposition politician Sahra Wagenknecht, which combines left-wing economic policy with a restrictive approach to migration and other positions with potential appeal to some AfD voters, might dent its support.

Around 60.9 million German citizens are eligible to vote, along with 4.1 million residents from other EU countries who can decide whether to vote in Germany or their country of origin.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
| Photo Credit: AFP

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s beleaguered coalition was counting the cost on October 9 of heavy losses at two State elections halfway into its term, which also saw the far right make strong gains.

All three parties in the coalition— Mr. Scholz’s centre-left SPD, the Greens and the liberal FDP— saw support fall on October 8 in the southern region of Bavaria, the country’s biggest State, and Hesse in the west.

The main conservative opposition won in both polls, as expected, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gained more ground, causing fresh concern about their growing appeal.

Nearly 14 million people were eligible to vote in the States, almost one in five of Germany’s electorate. The polls were seen as a crucial indicator of the population’s mood, with surging immigration and economic woes among key topics.

“It is clear who won the vote: populism,” said news weekly Der Spiegel while the top-selling Bild said a whopping 80 percent of Sunday’s voters were calling for a change in migration policy, citing polling institute Infratest dimap.

Two years after coming to power, the polls were a kind of “interim report card” for Mr. Scholz’s coalition, Der Spiegel said.

“The results are disastrous,” it went on. “The coalition needs a reset if it wants to be re-elected in two years.”

For the anti-immigration AfD, the votes were the latest sign of growing momentum and showed their appeal was extending beyond their traditional strongholds in the ex-communist east.

The elections came after a torrid two years for Scholz’s government, which has had to contend with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and an ensuing energy crisis that plunged Germany into recession.

Adding to the problems, the chancellor’s coalition has been consumed by bitter infighting on issues ranging from climate laws to spending cuts.

However, Mr. Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit sought to play down the vote setbacks, saying the government was on course to tackle the most pressing issues facing the country.

“The Chancellor is convinced that the government is doing a good job, that it has the right positions and is charting the right course for the longer term,” he told reporters.

Not helping the cause of the SPD and its coalition partners, both states are conservative strongholds. Hesse had been ruled for 24 years by the main opposition CDU and Bavaria since 1957 by the CSU, headed by Markus Soeder.

The SPD had sought to gain ground in Hesse by fielding a heavyweight to run for state premier, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.

But the party won just 15% of the vote, almost five percentage points below its last result in 2018.

The CDU maintained its first place in Hesse and extended its lead by over seven points to 34.6%.

State premier Boris Rhein is thus set to retain his job, while Ms. Faeser is left facing questions about her political future.

SPD party leader Saskia Esken said the poor showing underlined that the government in Berlin must speed up its response on migration in particular.

“We have got to seal migration agreements with the main countries of origin now,” she told public broadcaster ARD.

The AfD looked to have gained about five percentage points in both Bavaria and Hesse, building on recent local poll wins, although the mainstreams parties have ruled out cooperation with it in government.

Immigration was a central theme at the polls as Germany— like elsewhere in Europe— faces a surge of new arrivals, reviving memories of a major influx in 2015.

The victory of the CSU— the sister party of the CDU— in Bavaria was widely expected and State Premier Mr. Soeder will retain his post.

But with vote projections showing the party’s worst result for decades, it could deal a blow to his ambitions to one day stand as a Chancellor candidate.

Nordhausen, Germany:

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Sunday lost a tight mayoral race where the party had been tipped to secure the office of city mayor for the first time. 

The AfD’s candidate Joerg Prophet was defeated by independent incumbent Kai Buchmann in a run-off vote that put the spotlight on the city of Nordhausen in the former East German state of Thuringia.

The prospect of a win for the far-right party was described as a “catastrophe” by the keepers of a nearby concentration camp memorial ahead of the ballot.

Around 60,000 prisoners were held in the Mittelbau-Dora slave labour camp — a sub-camp of the notorious Buchenwald — only 6 km (four miles) from central Nordhausen.

They were forced to make V-2 rockets in brutal underground conditions, with around one in three worked to death.

An AfD mayor would not have been welcome at commemorative events at the site’s memorial, Jens-Christian Wagner, director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, told AFP.

‘Weight lifted’

“The AfD is an extreme right-wing party whose ideology is congruent or at least very similar in many areas to the ideology of the National Socialists,” he said.

Prophet looked confident ahead of the vote, flashing a brilliant white grin to passers-by at his campaign stand in the small but prosperous city.

The 61-year-old argued he represented a fresh start for Nordhausen after six-year incumbent Buchmann had fallen out of favour with many residents after repeatedly clashing with the city council.

Like many members of the far-right party, Prophet has been accused of extremism and historical revisionism.

In a blog post in 2020, he claimed the Allied forces that liberated the Mittelbau-Dora camp were only interested in snooping on the site’s rocket and missile technology.

He also called for an end to Germany’s Schuldkult, or “guilt cult”, a reference to the country’s efforts to remember and learn from the Holocaust.

But in the end, Prophet failed to gather the support needed to become city mayor, collecting 45.1 percent of the vote. 

The result guaranteed a “normal life for Nordhausen”, Buchmann said after the outcome became clear.

With the result “a huge weight has been lifted”, Wagner told news channel NTV.

It made clear that “you cannot win elections with historical revisionism, with an attitude that downplays the suffering of concentration camp prisoners”, he said.

Regional tests

Nonetheless, right-wing extremist attitudes are becoming increasingly widespread in Germany, according to a survey published this week by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Eight percent of Germans can now be classified as having clear right-wing extremist views, compared with two to three percent in previous years, the foundation said.

The AfD, created in 2013 as an anti-euro outfit before seizing on anger over mass migration to Germany, has had a string of successes of late.

The party secured its first district administrator position in June, also in Thuringia, and its first town mayor in July in neighbouring Saxony-Anhalt.

At the national level, recent opinion polls have put the party on 22 percent, above Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left SPD and only a few points behind the main opposition conservative party.

The AfD’s support is especially strong in Thuringia, where it is polling  around 34 percent, according to a recent survey by regional broadcaster MDR.

Thuringia will hold a vote for its regional parliament in September 2024, along with two other former East German states, Brandenburg and Saxony.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)