Reactions to Saxony-Anhalt: storms of enthusiasm, paralysis and deep concern

Three parties, three reactions that could hardly be more different: Italy's right-wing government under the post-fascist Giorgia Meloni is deeply divided in its attitude to the AfD's success. Matteo Salvini, head of the right-wing populist, anti-immigrant Lega and deputy prime minister, celebrates: "A spectacular success that makes the desire for change clear. Terror? Danger? No, that's called democracy."

Antonio Tajani, also Deputy Prime Minister, sees things completely differently. The chairman of Forza Italia says the AfD triumph is “very bad news for Europe, which will hopefully remain a local exception”; Now it is important to avoid “the populist and fanatical drift flooding Europe”.

The reaction of Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia party, on the other hand, is more than cautious. Only Emanuele Loperfido, backbencher in the House of Representatives, speaks out. He comments tight-lipped, “We do not judge the decisions of the citizens, every election result must be respected.”

And then there is Roberto Vannacci from the Europe of Sovereign Nations group in the European Parliament, to which the AfD also belongs. “Merz has a stomach ulcer,” he diagnoses, “we are scaring the caste and we are on the right path.”

In the upcoming presidential elections in spring 2027, the extreme right with Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella from Rassemblement National wants to go nationwide - in this case nationwide! – also grab power. The elections in the distant German federal state therefore have a special and direct significance. The right-wing radical presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, a competitor of the RN, celebrates the AfD's victory as a “moment of truth,” which he also wants in Paris.

Significantly, neither Le Pen nor other RN spokesmen reacted on Sunday evening to the election victory of the AfD, which is not perceived and valued as a “sister party” by the French right-wing populist due to past differences of opinion. During a trip to Italy on Saturday, Bardella declared in advance that the party he presided over had distanced itself from the AfD because of "a series of differences of opinion" and that an alliance was "not planned".

Even though Le Pen and Bardella are probably happy about the additional momentum of the AfD's triumph for the European radical right, they do not want any support - and do not think they need it anyway given the polls in France.

What is currently being experienced as a shock in Germany has long been a political reality in the neighboring country. The right-wing populist FPÖ was already the winner of the National Council election in 2024 - 28.8 percent voted for them back then. The extreme right-wing party is also involved in five state governments. In Styria she even provides the Prime Minister.

It didn't take long for the FPÖ to respond. At 9 p.m. the sister party congratulates “dear” Ulrich on X on his election victory. “The time for patriots and system change has come – in Germany and also here in Austria.” Even before the first forecasts were made, congratulations came on the “terrific election campaign”.

While some media are still busy trying to classify the AfD's election victory politically, the FPÖ-affiliated tabloid Today already has an answer. She celebrates the result with a series of pictures and quickly describes it as a “sensation”.

The AfD's success worries many Austrians, but very few are surprised. There is particular concern for marginalized groups. This makes it all the more important to show solidarity with them.

“The AFD’s victory is a serious warning to German democracy,” headlines Poland’s left-liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza. “In Poland, only idiots and traitors can be happy about the AfD’s victory in Germany,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on the social media platform X. “Some of these have accumulated in the Confederation and Law and Justice (PiS) parties.”

"Today Saxony-Anhalt, tomorrow all of Germany... Bravo, @AfD!", on the other hand, the right-wing national magazine Do Rzeczy quotes the writer Jacek Piekara, a popular fantasy writer who is close to the PiS and often expresses himself politically from the right-wing corner: "A victory for the AfD is the best solution for Poland. The CDU/CSU and SPD are allies of Moscow and Brussels. The AfD is also an ally of Moscow, but it is an enemy “So for us it is the lesser evil. Given the extremely anti-Polish policies of Merkel, Scholz and Merz, I can’t imagine that the AfD could be worse than them!” said the Polish writer.

“The extreme right will soon rule Germany again – what could go wrong?” jokes an Israeli with dark humor in the comments section of an Israeli television station on a report about the AfD’s election victory. “And the Israeli right supports them!” adds another.

The Israeli right and the Netanyahu government have an ambivalent relationship with the German right, namely the AfD. Because even if some in the AfD clearly represent anti-Semitic positions and no AfD representatives are officially received, the positions of the right-wing extremist ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich largely coincide with those of the AfD, in migration policy and Islamophobia, for example. In 2020, Yair Netanyahu, right-wing influencer and son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even mutated into the AfD's poster boy. Yair Netanyahu tweeted at the time in which he railed against the “globalist EU”.

There was no reaction from the government to the AfD's election victory, neither dismay nor support. But Yishai Fleisher, an influential settler and close confidant of Ben Gvir, celebrated the AfD victory on X as part of a “global conservative wave”. “Congratulations, Germany and Europe – maybe there is still hope for you!”

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump didn't even wait for the final vote count in Saxony-Anhalt to express his joy about the result. On his platform TRUTH he shared the latest projections without comment, but his need to communicate the election result alone told his followers what he thought about it. Elon Musk was much more direct in his well-known sympathy for the AfD - he called Alice Weidel on Sunday to congratulate her.

Meanwhile, the election results caused deep concern in the centrist-liberal mainstream. The New York Times, which made the Saxony-Anhalt election a top topic, feared above all a signal effect for upcoming elections in France and Spain and feared a shift to the right across Europe. The fear goes hand in hand with concerns about the stability of the transatlantic alliance, especially given the open Russia-friendliness of the AfD and other right-wing parties in Europe. At the same time, commentators expressed concerns about the German federal government's weakness in leadership, which was revealed by the election results.

The Moscow leadership is rarely as uninterested as it was after the AfD's sobering election victory in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday. When asked by the international Russian-language television station RTVI, Kremlin spokesman Dmitrij Peskov even replied that the Kremlin simply did not follow the elections in Saxony-Anhalt. Accordingly, he could not comment on the topic.

The Russian state media limited itself to short reports. This reluctance in view of the electoral success of the AfD, which, as its co-chair Tino Chrupalla emphasized on Monday, wants to maintain good relations with Russia again, can also be interpreted in other ways than as pure disinterest: they simply quote Chancellor Friedrich Merz admitting his defeat - for them a triumph over an unpopular chancellor, nothing more seems to be needed. On Monday it was also announced that the Russian Foreign Ministry had ordered the closure of the German Consulate General in Saint Petersburg from September 18th.