AfD projected to lead key eastern German state election
Polling placed the far-right party well ahead of the centre-right CDU in a vote testing mainstream parties’ refusal to co-operate with it.
German voters went to the polls on Sunday in Saxony-Anhalt, in an election watched as a test of the country’s political resistance to the far right.
France 24 reported the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the clear frontrunner, with the far-right, anti-immigration party expected to secure a clear majority. The report described the AfD as friendly towards Moscow and Donald Trump.
Polling cited in the background material put the AfD at about 40 per cent, ahead of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union on about 23 per cent. Those figures are estimates, not official results.
The vote has focused attention on Germany’s longstanding policy among mainstream parties of refusing to co-operate with the AfD. An outright majority would allow the party to avoid coalition arrangements with those parties, although Germany’s proportional electoral system generally makes single-party majorities difficult.
If the AfD falls short, coalition negotiations could take weeks, depending on which parties enter parliament. The election is also being viewed as a test of the party’s wider ambitions ahead of Germany’s 2029 federal election.
