The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party secured a historic victory in the Saxony-Anhalt regional election on September 6, 2026, winning 43.8% of the vote. The result delivered a severe blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose CDU party plummeted to 17.2%. Falling just three seats short of an absolute majority, the AfD is testing Germany's political "firewall" as it seeks to form the nation's first far-right state government since World War II.
AfD Saxony-Anhalt election victory
- ▪Voter turnout in the Saxony-Anhalt regional election on September 6, 2026, reached 77.8%, representing an increase of 17.5 percentage points compared to 2021.
- ▪The far-right Alternative for Germany party won the Saxony-Anhalt regional election on September 6, 2026, securing 43.8% of the party-list votes.
- ▪Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union party finished second in the Saxony-Anhalt election with 17.2% of the vote, losing approximately half of its 2021 support.
Voter dissatisfaction with Merz
- ▪An Infratest dimap survey for ARD public television found that 87% of voters in Saxony-Anhalt were unhappy with Chancellor Friedrich Merz's federal government.
- ▪A ZDF public television survey found that three-quarters of respondents, including nearly half of Christian Democratic Union supporters, believed Chancellor Friedrich Merz hurt his party's election result.
- ▪German Chancellor Friedrich Merz described the Saxony-Anhalt election result as a seismic shock that shook the Christian Democratic Union to its very foundations.
Firewall against far-right cooperation
- ▪The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, which won five seats with 5.3% of the vote, proposed a nonpartisan premier to govern Saxony-Anhalt with issue-by-issue majorities.
- ▪The Alternative for Germany party's regional branch in Saxony-Anhalt has been officially designated as a proven right-wing extremist organization by the region's domestic intelligence agency.
- ▪German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Christian Democratic Union officials strictly ruled out any political cooperation or coalition building with the Alternative for Germany party.
Majority threshold shortfall
- ▪The Alternative for Germany party won 39 seats in the 83-member Saxony-Anhalt state parliament, falling three seats short of an outright majority.
- ▪Alternative for Germany candidate Ulrich Siegmund rejected the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance's proposal for a nonpartisan premier and suggested persuading individual lawmakers to switch parties to secure a majority.
AfD cryptocurrency tax policy
- ▪In an October 23, 2025 Bundestag motion, the Alternative for Germany party called for Bitcoin to be excluded from MiCA regulations and for private mining to be exempt from commercial taxation.
- ▪The Alternative for Germany party opposed a Green Party bill in May 2026 that aimed to eliminate Germany's one-year holding period tax exemption for privately held cryptocurrencies.
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