Alternative for Germany (AfD) finished first in Saxony-Anhalt's state election with 43.8% of the vote, according to the state election authority. The result left the party short of an outright majority. π³οΈ
The vote was a major advance from the party's result in the previous state election and put coalition formation at the centre of the immediate political response.
π° Germany's chancellor, Friedrich Merz, described the outcome as one the country could not simply move past. The Guardian reported that the Christian Democratic Union's state leader conceded that the party no longer had a mandate to govern in Saxony-Anhalt.