AfD takes 43.8 percent in Saxony-Anhalt and wins every municipality

Alternative for Germany won 43.79 percent of the party-list vote in Saxony-Anhalt's 8 September land election, according to the state statistical office's preliminary official count. The party took 39 of 83 seats, three short of the 42 needed for an outright majority. It finished first in all 218 municipalities and won 38 of 41 direct constituencies. Only the Left Party took the other three districts, two in Halle and one in Magdeburg.

The Christian Democratic Union, which has led the state for 24 years, collapsed to 17.23 percent and 15 seats. It won zero direct mandates. Outgoing Minister-President Sven Schulze lost Magdeburg III to AfD candidate Christian Mertens, who won that urban seat with 35.2 percent. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the result had changed not only Saxony-Anhalt but Germany as a whole, and that "we are all profoundly shocked." Schulze said he would draw lessons.

The rest of the new landtag is fragmented. The Social Democrats took 9.30 percent and eight seats. The Greens took 8.93 percent. The Left took 8.56 percent. The Sahra Wagenknecht alliance entered with 5.27 percent. The Free Democrats died at 2.58 percent. CDU, SPD, Greens and Left together hold 39 seats, the same as the AfD. Turnout was 77.82 percent of 1,706,851 registered voters, up 17.5 points from 2021 and the highest land turnout in eastern Germany since the 1990s.

AfD more than doubled its 2021 share. Men voted for it at about 50 percent, women at 39 percent. In the 35-44 age band the party reached 52 percent. Even among 18-24-year-olds it led, at 41 percent. Reiner Kretschmann took Eisleben with 55.6 percent of first votes, the best constituency score. Hans-Thomas Tillschneider took Querfurt with 54.9 percent. Lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund won Genthin with 49 percent and said the party had made history.

The Saxony-Anhalt branch is one of several AfD state parties that Germany's domestic intelligence service classifies as proven right-wing extremist. The party rejects that label. On 8 September it offered exploratory talks to the CDU and to BSW. The CDU's national firewall against coalition with the AfD is the immediate constraint. BSW has signalled it can work with the AfD on some files. No modern German state has yet been led by the AfD.

The arithmetic is ugly for Merz. His party lost about 20 points off the list and every single-member race. A grand combination of the old centre still only ties the AfD seat for seat. A minority CDU arrangement would need votes from parties that just watched their own numbers stall. Leaving the AfD in opposition with 39 seats gives it a blocking position on anything that needs a majority.

Saxony-Anhalt has 2.1 million people and sits west of Berlin. It is not Bavaria. It is now the clearest numerical test of whether the postwar party system in the east still has a centre large enough to govern. The official sheet says 43.8 percent, 39 seats, 218 municipalities, zero CDU direct wins. Coalition math starts from those four figures.