Far-right AfD wins record 44% in German state election, first time it has topped a state poll in postwar history

Exit polls put Alternative for Germany at 44.2% in Sunday's Saxony-Anhalt state election, more than double the 17.4% won by Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats and the party's strongest regional result yet. AfD still falls three seats short of the 42 needed for an outright majority, and every mainstream party maintains a "firewall" refusing to govern with it, but a win of this scale intensifies pressure on that policy ahead of national elections.

← See the full edition