Far-right AfD party takes big lead in regional German election

The Associated Press

· Posted: Sep 06, 2026 1:34 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

The Alternative for Germany party has a strong lead in a regional election, but it is unclear whether it will be able to form the country's first far-right state government since the Second World War, exit polls indicated Sunday.

Alternative for Germany, or AfD, went into the vote in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt seeking an absolute majority in the state legislature to govern on its own. That would overcome the so-called firewall of mainstream parties' refusal to work with the AfD.

A first state government would be the biggest prize in the party's 13-year history, at a time of widespread discontent with an unpopular national government that has yet to persuade voters it can get the country's sluggish economy moving. It would be at least a symbolic blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose centre-right party has led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years.

The polls for ARD and ZDF public television put the AfD on around 44 per cent 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 was seen polling 18.5 per cent and losing about half its support. The centre-left Social Democrats and Greens also were on course to remain in the state legislature, with around eight to nine per cent each.

WATCH | How the AfD rose to prominence in Saxony-Anhalt:

It was unclear whether the left-wing BSW party would get the five per cent of the vote needed to win seats. The exit polls put the AfD at least marginally short of an absolute majority.

Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD's charismatic 35-year-old candidate for state governor, told ARD that "we have written history." Voters, he said, had sent a signal that "things cannot carry on like this."

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He said that the unpopular Merz had been "a very good campaigner for us."

Franziska Hoppermann, the national general secretary of Merz's CDU, said that it was "a very difficult result for us."

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.