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German exit polls suggest far-right party has big lead in regional election
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− Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics German exit polls suggest far-right party has big lead in regional election The Alternative for Germany party has a strong lead in a regional election, but it is unclear if it will be able to form Germany's's first far-right state government since WWII, exit polls indicate.
+ Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Far-Right AfD scores historic victory in German state election Exit polls show Germany's AfD taking a commanding lead in a regional election, but it remains unclear whether the far-right party can form the country's first state government since World War II.
− World German exit polls suggest far-right party has big lead in regional election September 6, 202612:36 PM ET By
The Associated Press
Ulrich Siegmund, top candidate for the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) party votes at a polling station during the Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Tangermuende, eastern Germany, Sunday, Sept.
+ Europe German exit polls suggest far-right party has big lead in regional election September 6, 202612:36 PM ET By
Esme Nicholson
AfD supporters celebrate with a sign featuring top candidate Ulrich Siegmund after the first results of the Saxony-Anhalt state election at the party's election night gathering in Magdeburg, Germany, Sunday, Sept.
− Matthias Schrader/AP hide caption
MAGDEBURG, Germany — The Alternative for Germany party has a strong lead in a regional election, but it is unclear whether it will be able to form the country's first far-right state government since World War II, exit polls indicated Sunday.
+ Matthias Schrader/AP hide caption
BERLIN — Germany's far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland, or Alternative for Germany, (AfD) has won the most votes in the closely watched regional election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt according to exit polls.
− Alternative for Germany, or AfD, went into the vote in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt seeking an absolute majority in the state legislature to govern on its own.
+ Projections show the party is comfortably ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), but it remains unclear whether the AfD will win enough seats to secure a majority in the state parliament.
According to exit polls released on Sunday by German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF the AfD is on course to win a record 44.1% to 44.5% of the vote.
− That would overcome the so-called "firewall" of mainstream parties' refusal to work with AfD.
+ The Christian Democratic Union is projected to take 18.5%.
− Europe Germany's far-right AfD party is poised for power in a state election A first state government would be the biggest prize in the party's 13-year history, at a time of widespread discontent with an unpopular national government that has yet to persuade voters it can get the country's sluggish economy moving.
+ The AfD won 20.8% in the 2021 regional election.
− It would be at least a symbolic blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose center-right party has led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years.
+ If the projections are accurate, the CDU has halved its share of voters while the AfD doubled theirs.
− The polls for ARD and ZDF public television put AfD on around 44% of the vote, more than double its showing five years ago in the region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin.
+ If the AfD succeeds in forming a government, it would mark the first time in Germany's postwar history that the far-right has taken control of a state government.
− That was far ahead of the Christian Democratic Union, the center-right party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz that currently leads the state, which was seen polling 18.5% and losing about half its support.
+ The party's anti-establishment appeal is no longer confined to eastern Germany; at the federal level, the party is also polling first.
− The Left Party was seen finishing third with about 9%.
+ A win in Saxony-Anhalt would be a major breakthrough for a party that has been classified as right-wing extremist by domestic intelligence authorities in several German states.
− The center-left Social Democrats and Greens also were on course to remain in the state legislature, with around 8%-9% each.
+ Speaking to public broadcaster ZDF, AfD federal leader Alice Weidel said Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives will never win another election.
"We are seeing explosive growth here," she said, referring to Saxony-Anhalt.
− It was unclear whether the BSW party would get the 5% of the vote needed to win seats.
+ "We are going to see explosive growth across all of East Germany — and at the federal level, too."
The AfD candidate behind that growth in Saxony-Anhalt is 35-year-old Ulrich Siegmund, a former marketing man with a friendly image but a radical platform.
In his videos, he is dressed in a flawlessly ironed white polo shirt or starched white dress shirt — the uniform of Germany's newly professionalized far-right.
His carefully coiffed side parting is as immaculate as his smile, something that distinguishes him from the rest of his party, whose members tend to grimace rather than grin.
But Siegmund's broad smile rarely cracks, even when he speaks about the party's biggest issue, immigration and the mass deportation of migrants.
− The exit polls put AfD at least marginally short of an absolute majority.
+ The incongruity is striking. The polished, affable politician is also a proponent of one of the hardest-right positions in contemporary European politics.
− Ulrich Siegmund, AfD's charismatic 35-year-old candidate for state governor, told ARD that "we have written history." Voters, he said, had sent a signal that "things cannot carry on like this."
He said that the unpopular Merz had been "a very good campaigner for us."
Franziska Hoppermann, the national general secretary of Merz's CDU, said that it was "a very difficult result for us."
AfD is the biggest opposition party in Germany's national parliament and is strongest in the formerly communist and less prosperous east, where Saxony-Anhalt is located.
+ Siegmund has campaigned for mass deportations and changes to migration and education policy. The AfD has also called for changes to the region's public broadcaster and closer relations with Russia and the MAGA movement in the United States.
+ After the result, Siegmund declared: "We have written history."
He also thanked Chancellor Friedrich Merz, saying he had been "a very good campaigner for us."
This is a developing story and will be updated.