The AfD's wins in Germany's states, and who will govern with it
The far-right AfD came first in two German state elections in September 2026 and took 43.8 percent in Saxony-Anhalt on the final count. It holds 39 of the 83 seats there, and no party has agreed to enter a coalition with it. On 6 October the Saxony-Anhalt parliament elected an AfD politician to chair the chamber, with votes from outside his own party.
The AfD won two of Germany's three state elections in September 2026. In Saxony-Anhalt on 6 September it took 43.8 percent on the final count, 23 points more than in 2021, which the OSW Centre for Eastern Studies called the best result in the party's history. The CDU, after 24 years in power there, fell 19.9 points to 17.2 percent. Two weeks later the AfD took 38.2 percent in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, ahead of the SPD on 35.5. The CDU polled 4.9 percent there and missed the five percent threshold.
The CDU, the SPD, the Greens and Die Linke all rule out governing with the AfD, a refusal Germans call the Brandmauer, or firewall. The CDU says the policy is necessary because the AfD threatens Germany's constitutional order. The AfD says it is undemocratic. Reuters noted in August that the AfD had entered no government, state or federal, and that the Politbarometer had it at 27 percent nationally against 22 for the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU.
On 6 October the new Saxony-Anhalt parliament elected Tobias Rausch of the AfD as its president, the first from his party to lead a German state parliament. The president chairs its sittings, runs its administration and ranks first in the state's protocol. Rausch got 48 votes, four more than the AfD and the BSW hold together. The CDU's leaders had told its members to abstain together. The party had 14 of its 15 members in the chamber, and five abstentions were counted in all.
An absolute majority in the chamber is 42 of the 83 seats. The AfD has 39, and the CDU, the SPD, the Greens and Die Linke have 39 between them, which leaves the BSW's five votes to decide which side can reach it. The BSW, which said before the election that it would cooperate with the AfD, had promised Rausch its five. It has ruled out a formal coalition, and offers instead to support a minority government on individual laws.
The results elsewhere did not all run one way. Die Linke came first in Berlin, where the AfD was third. On 9 October the SPD, Die Linke and the Greens agreed to open coalition talks in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Inside the CDU the Brandmauer itself is contested. After the September defeats some members pushed to end the ostracism of the AfD, and regional party bodies called for the resignation of Sven Schulze, who has led the state government since January.
”I will not hold this office as the president of one group, but as the president of the whole Saxony-Anhalt parliament.”
The numbers
What the comparison shows
Where they agree
The AfD came first in two states, and the CDU failed to enter a state parliament for the first time in the Federal Republic's history. Sahra Wagenknecht, who founded the BSW, said after the 6 October vote that the Brandmauer had failed and that Siegmund's election in December had become likely. The SPD's general secretary, Tim Klüssendorf, said the CDU now had to explain who in its own ranks had thought that vote was right.
Where they split
Merz answers the defeats with reforms inside his own camp and says he is holding his course. Weidel says the refusal to work with her party is what makes the CDU lose, and the national polls are her evidence: in late August they put the AfD ahead of the CDU and the CSU. Holm asked the other parties in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to talk to him, and the three that can govern without him opened talks with each other instead. Eralp's win cuts the other way: Die Linke came first in Berlin on housing, and the AfD finished third.
What nobody is saying
Where Rausch's four extra votes came from is not known, because the ballot was secret. Schulze, who also leads the CDU's group in the parliament, said the suggestion that they came from his own members could not be traced. The December vote on a minister-president will test whether those votes come again. OSW notes that the state constitution sets no deadline for that vote, and that a simple majority would be enough if it reached a third round.
Who says what
Took the chair of the parliament on 6 October with votes from beyond his own party. He said he would hold the office for the whole chamber and not for his group, and that the rules of the parliament must stand even when majorities change. He also said the age of political firewalls should be over.
”Ich werde dieses Amt nicht als Präsident einer Fraktion führen, sondern als Präsident des gesamten Landtages von Sachsen-Anhalt führen”I will not hold this office as the president of one group, but as the president of the whole Saxony-Anhalt parliament.
Says the Saxony-Anhalt result changed Germany as a whole and that there will have to be consequences. He promises fundamental reforms while saying he is sticking to his own course without wavering.
”We are all profoundly shocked. We did not expect it to turn out like this.”We are all profoundly shocked. We did not expect it to turn out like this.
Said before the vote that the AfD would form the government in Saxony-Anhalt. She argues that the CDU's refusal to work with her party is weakening the conservatives and will eventually let the AfD govern nationally.
”The CDU will never win another federal election”The CDU will never win another federal election.
Came first in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and claimed the right to form the next state government. He said the AfD would naturally also talk to all the other parties.
”It's about the people of our state. We want to improve politics,”It's about the people of our state. We want to improve politics.
Led Die Linke to first place in Berlin on the night the AfD came first in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. She campaigned on rents, social housing and taking large housing portfolios into public ownership.
”If a left-wing candidate can win in New York, then there's no reason it can't happen in Berlin.”If a left-wing candidate can win in New York, then there's no reason it can't happen in Berlin.
Our coverage
- The Left wins Berlin for the first time, Merz calls the results a 'disaster'Tuesday, 22 September 2026
- AfD posts record win in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, CDU shut out of a German state parliament for the first time everMonday, 21 September 2026
- AfD wins Saxony-Anhalt in a landslide, Merz calls it a shock for GermanyTuesday, 8 September 2026
- Far-right AfD wins record 44% in German state election, first far-right result this high since the warMonday, 7 September 2026
- AfD within reach of historic majority in German state voteThursday, 3 September 2026
- AfD polls 41 percent ahead of Saxony-Anhalt voteMonday, 24 August 2026
- A CDU mayor breaks ranks for the AfD, and Merz faces the falloutSaturday, 22 August 2026