Election results in Saxony-Anhalt: Absolute majority missed

rtr | The AfD won the election in Saxony-Anhalt by a large margin, but fell short of an absolute majority according to the provisional official election results early on Monday morning. Since the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) made it into the Magdeburg state parliament, the party, which is partly right-wing extremist, has 39 of the total 83 seats and thus narrowly missed out on sole government. Both parties are less hostile towards each other, while the CDU, SPD, Greens and Left have so far clearly positioned themselves against the AfD, which is partly right-wing extremist. AfD top candidate Ulrich Siegmund spoke of a clear government mandate, which he only wanted to accept if he could implement its content in a coalition.

After all ballot papers were fully counted, the AfD came to 43.8 percent. The party was able to more than double its result from 2021. Siegmund himself clearly won his direct mandate with 49.0 percent against the CDU candidate Thomas Staudt. The CDU plummeted nationwide and was only at 17.2 percent, almost half as much as in 2021. The SPD (9.3 percent), the Greens (8.9 percent) and the Left (8.6 percent) ended up in the single digits. The BSW made it in with 5.3 percent, while the FDP clearly failed at the five percent hurdle with 2.6 percent. Voter turnout was 77.8 percent.

AfD leading candidate Siegmund ruled out coalitions with extensive compromises on election night. On Sunday evening on ZDF, he called the BSW's offer for a non-partisan Prime Minister “Wurschtel”. The AfD does not want to give up its values ​​“for any power games”. There can only be cooperation with those who support the AfD's claim of clear political change. When asked what would happen if this was not possible, he threatened: “If necessary, there will be new elections.” Then the AfD will achieve “50 or 55 percent”. However, he does not yet know what the election results will trigger in the next few days. Siegmund does not want to strive for a minority government.

AfD federal leader Tino Chrupalla, however, appeared willing to compromise on ARD. “Politics always means compromise,” he said and appealed to the CDU MPs to enable a “bourgeois-conservative majority”. The deputy chairwoman of the AfD parliamentary group, Beatrix von Storch, also called on the CDU to be willing to talk. However, Union parliamentary group leader Thorsten Frei rejected speculation about possible defections from his party to the AfD. “We don’t talk to right-wing extremists,” said the CDU politician on ZDF.

In the new state parliament, the AfD has 39 seats and 15 for the CDU. The Left, SPD and Greens each receive eight mandates, the BSW five. For a government against the AfD, very different parties would have to work together in some form - the CDU, the Left, the Greens and the SPD and also the BSW. BSW leader Amira Mohamed Ali said her party wanted to work for a non-partisan government. A third option is being promoted, namely a prime minister who governs with changing majorities.

The previous state government made up of the CDU, SPD and FDP no longer has a majority and has therefore been voted out. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Sven Schulze (CDU) could try to form a government, possibly a minority government. On election night, the 47-year-old dodged questions about what he planned to do next. It is still too early to draw conclusions. From Monday, his party's committees would analyze the result. There have already been calls for Schulze to resign. The CDU has an incompatibility decision for cooperation with both the AfD and the Left Party. This, too, will likely be questioned in the coming days. In the group of 18 to 24 year olds, the CDU only received five percent of the vote. The AfD was also the strongest party here.

The election result is also likely to have an impact on federal politics and thus the black-red coalition under Chancellor and CDU leader Friedrich Merz. Chancellery Minister Nina Warken spoke of a “breaking point” for the CDU. In surveys for ARD, 87 percent of those surveyed were dissatisfied with the federal government.

Economist Marcel Fratzscher called for a change in economic policy by the federal government. “This election result is above all a vote of no confidence in the federal government,” said the President of the German Institute for Economic Research to the Reuters news agency. “The only right consequence for our democracy from this election result can only mean that the federal government changes course and implements profound, structural reforms in subsidies, bureaucracy, taxes, the social system and Europe.”

The SPD leadership announced corrections to the federal government's reform course. The result is also a “signal to Berlin” and a “reason to think about politics here in Berlin,” said party leader Lars Klingbeil, who is also Federal Finance Minister. SPD General Secretary Tim Klüssendorf named pension and care reforms as well as the preparation of the federal budget as topics that needed to be discussed. The planned abolition of the pension without deductions after 45 years of contributions particularly affects SPD supporters and was also an issue in the election campaign in Saxony-Anhalt.

The election also caused a stir internationally. US President Donald Trump shared a screenshot of the result without comment on his Truth Social platform. The head of the right-wing Italian party Lega, Matteo Salvini, congratulated the AfD on Platform X on an “overwhelming success”. This is a slap in the face for the left. The head of the left-wing populist French party LFI, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, called the election victory a catastrophe. “The extreme right has returned to Germany,” he wrote on X. Under these circumstances, Germany’s plan to build Europe’s strongest conventional army was unacceptable to France.

At home, the Central Council of Jews expressed horror. A party classified as firmly right-wing extremist is only just away from sole government, Central Council President Josef Schuster told the Welt newspaper. Whoever voted for the AfD bears responsibility for this result.

Left-wing top candidate Eva von Angern emphasized that, depending on the election results in Saxony-Anhalt, she was ready to elect a CDU prime minister in Magdeburg. The SPD and the Greens also signaled their willingness to form a coalition against the AfD.

In Saxony-Anhalt, almost 1.7 million of the 2.1 million residents were eligible to vote. Schulze has only been Prime Minister of the structurally weak country since the end of January, in which the chemical industry, with a focus on Leuna, plays an important role and suffers from the high energy prices in Germany. According to the state constitution, the Prime Minister remains in office until a successor is elected.

According to ZDF, voter turnout was 77 percent, significantly higher than in 2021, when a good 60 percent of those eligible to vote voted.

FDP state leader Lydia Hüskens announced her resignation. She only got a good two percent for the Liberals. The infrastructure minister told MDR that she was responsible and would make her office available.