AfD's state election win in Saxony-Anhalt tests Germany's political firewall

The AfD won a historic state election in Germany's Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8 percent of the vote, marking the far-right party's first such victory and testing the country's post-war political firewall against extremism. The party secured 39 of 83 state parliament seats, short of an outright majority, while the CDU finished second with 17.2 percent. Mainstream parties have ruled out coalitions with the AfD, leaving it without a clear path to government despite the win. Founded in 2013 as a eurosceptic group, the AfD shifted sharply right on immigration after the 2015 refugee crisis. It won 20.8 percent in the 2025 federal election, and Germany's domestic intelligence agency has classified it as a confirmed right-wing extremist organisation, though a court has temporarily barred that designation pending a final ruling.