Germany’s AfD won a state election in a landslide, sounding an alarm for centrist politics

Updated on: September 7, 2026 / 12:13 PM EDT / CBS News

Berlin — Sunday's election results did not give Germany's controversial AfD party automatic control of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, but what the far-right party achieved wasn't just an election victory. It was a political landslide.

Alternative for Germany (AfD) won 43.8% of the vote in the legislative election, and while that may not be enough to form the next state government, it was the best result the party has achieved in any contest in its 13-year history.

Compared to the last state election in 2021, it more than doubled its share of the votes.

The result was even more dramatic for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union. The CDU garnered only 17.2% of the votes in Saxony-Anhalt — plummeting from the 37.1% achieved in the last state election. The CDU, which has led every Saxony-Anhalt state government since 2002, now trails the AfD by more than 26 percentage points.

The results of the election show how fundamentally Germany's political system is changing. The AfD is no longer a fringe, anti-European Union protest party.

In Germany, winning an election does not automatically mean a party gets to…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/