AfD Wins Saxony-Anhalt Election With 44.5% In Exit Polls

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt in exit polls, taking 44.5 percent of the vote, according to Al Jazeera’s report from Magdeburg.A

“The AfD won 44.5 percent of the vote”

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera said AfD’s lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund told supporters, “We have achieved exactly what we wanted to achieve,” and that the result gave the party a clear mandate to govern even though it was not immediately clear if it could form a government.A

ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The BBC said AfD was heading for a big victory with 44% of the vote, well ahead of the conservative CDU on 17.8%, and that governing at state level would mean powers over policing, local education and culture.

The BBC also reported that Saxony-Anhalt has a small population of 2.1 million and that the AfD in the state is assessed by domestic intelligence as “right-wing extremist,” a classification rejected by Siegmund.

In the same reporting, the BBC said the outcome hinges on whether one populist left-wing party, BSW, gets over the required threshold of 5%, with the AfD currently heading for 39 seats in the 83-seat state parliament if BSW fails.

As projections came in, the BBC reported that Siegmund said it was “sensational” and that he wanted to start governing as soon as possible, while his opposite number in the CDU, Sven Schulze, conceded victory and said, “This was an extremely tough and intensive election campaign.”

The BBC described a “firewall” policy in which other parties refuse to go into coalition with the AfD, and it said in Saxony-Anhalt the BSW had offered to co-operate with the AfD on some issues if it gets into the state parliament.

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera reported that Siegmund said the AfD would not bend to other parties’ will, stressing that the party has never participated in a ruling coalition in Germany’s 16 states nor its federal government because mainstream parties refuse to work with it.A

Al Jazeera also quoted Dominic Kane from Magdeburg saying, “Right now, we cannot say for sure,” whether the AfD’s vote share would be enough to take control of the state.A

In the BBC’s account, national figures also reacted, with Germany’s centre-left SPD describing the outcome as “truly dramatic” and national leader Lars Klingbeil calling it a “signal to Berlin.”

The BBC said governing at state level would give the AfD powers over policing, local education and culture, and it framed the immediate question as whether the party can secure enough seats to govern once smaller parties enter the state parliament.

“powers over policing, local education and culture”

BBC

Al Jazeera reported that AfD’s agenda includes targeting undocumented migrants with a “remigration and deportation offensive” from day one, and it said the party also promised to replace LGBTQ pride rainbow flags at public schools with the German standard.A

Al Jazeera added that the German Economic Institute warned the AfD’s immigration policy would be “ruinous” for Saxony-Anhalt, which it said is highly reliant on foreign-born workers, especially in the health sector.A

The BBC reported that AfD supporters in Magdeburg praised Siegmund’s success in winning over voters, including one man who told the BBC, “This man gives us what no-one else can give.”

In Al Jazeera’s reporting, Thuringia state interior minister Georg Maier told the Handelsblatt daily newspaper that the Kremlin “makes no secret of the fact that the AfD is the most important instrument for destabilising Germany for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” linking the election outcome to wider security concerns.A