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Germany's biggest hard-Right party is set for a 'historic' victory in a key regional election, exit polls show.
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polls → see → election
Alternative for Germany (AfD) took at least 44 per cent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt in the ex-communist east, according to exit polls published by broadcasters ARD and ZDF.
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Alternative → take → ARD
The anti-immigration and Moscow-friendly party is now on the brink of becoming the first hard-Right party to run a state government in Germany since the Second World War.
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party → become → War
'We have made history today,' said a jubilant Ulrich Siegmund, the 35-year-old lead candidate for AfD in Saxony-Anhalt.
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Siegmund → make → Anhalt
The result was seen as a stinging rebuke for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose centre-Right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) finished far behind AfD on 18 per cent.
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Union → see → cent
The centre-Left Social Democrats and environmental Greens both cleared the minimum threshold to enter state parliament with around 8 to 9 per cent each.
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Democrats → clear → cent
However, it remains far from clear who will eventually rule in the small state of 2.1 million people.
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who → remain → people
The AfD had hoped to garner enough votes for the absolute majority which would allow it to govern a state alone for the first time, but is instead on course to take just less than half of parliamentary seats available.
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it → hop → seats
Top candidate of the hard-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Ulrich Siegmund, and his wife Julia Siegmund, cast their votes in the Saxony-Anhalt state election at a polling station in Tangermuende, Germany, September 6, 2026
Ulrich Siegmund (right), AfD's main candidate in the Saxony-Anhalt state election, celebrates with the party's national co-leader Alice Weidel (left) after exit polls showed the party set for victory
Members and supporters of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party react after the first exit poll results were announced on public television at the AfD's election party following Saxony-Anhalt's state elections in Magdeburg, eastern Germany on September 6, 2026
The AfD meanwhile may hope to win the support of the small pro-Russian BSW party - a leftist group that is tough on immigration, and which was expected to just scrape into parliament with five percent.
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which → celebrate → percent
Alice Weidel, the AfD's national co-leader, praised the party's result as 'sensational' and said the party had 'received a very clear mandate to govern here'.
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party → praise → mandate
But until now the AfD has faced a policy of Brandmauer – which translates as 'firewall' – meaning other mainstream German parties have refused to negotiate with or go into coalition with them.
But the results of Sunday's election show that mainstream parties' longstanding policy of refusing co-operation with the AfD has been rejected by voters, the party's other national co-leader Tino Chrupalla claimed.
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leader → face → voters
Those parties 'were voted out - or rather, the voters delivered a clear verdict - and I can only encourage them to recognise that the "firewall" has been definitively rejected by the voters today,' Chrupalla, referring to the policy, told broadcaster ARD.
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Chrupalla → vote → ARD
'It was the others who erected the firewalls,' Mr Siegmund told German newspaper Bild before the results began to funnel through.
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results → erect → Bild
'If no one wants to work with us, then we'll just have to do it alone.'
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we → want → it
Mr Siegmund has ambitions to become state premier and lead a political revolution from Saxony-Anhalt that would propel the party to national victory in 2029.
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that → have → 2029
Dubbed 'Germany's most dangerous man' by a news magazine Der Spiegel, Mr Siegmund mocked the publication by handing out signed copies to his fans.
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Siegmund → dub → fans
In recent months, the hard-Right leader – a former entrepreneur – has been mobbed by adoring supporters at 'family picnics' and campaign events across the small state.
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leader → mob → state
The party has tapped into a sense of nostalgia for communist East Germany as well as lingering resentment about an enduring wealth gap with the west decades after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
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party → tap → Wall
Tapping in to the defiant sense of local 'Ossie pride' – Ossie being a colloquial term for people from the former East Germany – Mr Siegmund has been frequently pictured riding a vintage Simson scooter, including to the polling booth Sunday in his hometown of Tangermuende.
But his vow to deport irregular migrants 'from minute one' has terrified many foreign-born residents.
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vow → tap → residents
Germany's domestic intelligence agency considers the AfD chapter he represents as 'Right-wing extremist' with links to ethno-nationalist groups and think-tanks.
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he → consider → groups
Ulrich Siegmund and his wife arrive at the polling station in Tangermuende on Sunday on an iconic Simson scooter, which he has regularly ridden on the campaign trail
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he → arrive → trail
Mr Siegmund was present at a 2023 secret meeting near Berlin where extreme Right-wing activists discussed a radical 'remigration' plan to expel millions of people with a migration background.
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activists → discuss → background
At the time, the revelation cost Mr Siegmund a committee chairmanship in the state parliament – but he has since dismissed the meeting as a 'Kaffee Klatsch' or casual social gathering.
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he → cost → Klatsch
Letting out cries of joy and jumping into the air, AfD supporters celebrated as they realised the scale of their election triumph in the ex-communist eastern state.
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they → let → state
As exit polls put the party's vote share at a thumping 44 percent, jubilant scenes erupted at a post-election party in Magdeburg, capital of the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
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scenes → put → Anhalt
AfD state lawmaker Daniel Wald, 44, compared the unbridled happiness to the collective joy he remembers witnessing as a child on the day the Berlin Wall fell.
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Wall → compare → day
'That very feeling - that emotion I experienced back in 1989, with tears in my eyes and all the people around me, my family, cheering - that exact feeling welled up again when we stood up there and saw the result,' he said.
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he → experience → result
'And that is precisely what the people are feeling right now ... that this is a new beginning.
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this → feel → what
And, of course, that spirit is meant to spread across the entire country.'
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spirit → mean → country
Angela Maike, 65, a retiree from the city, told AFP: 'I thought the result would be around 41 percent, but it's higher.
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it → tell → AFP
AfD national co-leaders Alice Weidel (left) and Tino Chrupalla (right) congratulate local candidate Ulrich Siegmund (centre)
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leaders → congratulate → Siegmund
The AfD result was seen as a stinging rebuke to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (pictured)
'I always prefer to be a bit pessimistic beforehand so I can be pleasantly surprised afterwards.
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I → see → Merz
And that's what happened today,' she added.
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she → happen → ?
Julian Schneider, a 29-year-old member of the AfD's youth organisation, said he was not surprised at the result.
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he → say → result
'I'm naturally optimistic, but I think it was predictable,' he said.
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he → think → ?
Pointing to the high turnout - 78 per cent, according to public broadcaster ZDF - he welcomed the fact that 'people who might not have gone to vote in the end mobilised to vote for the AfD' in the small state of 2.1 million.
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who → point → million
German voters headed to the polls today for a crucial regional election with voting booths closing at 6pm local time.
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booths → head → pm
The small state of Saxony-Anhalt was ruled by the centre-Right CDU of Chancellor Friedrich Merz in coalition with two smaller parties, run by state premier Sven Schulze.
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state → rule → Schulze
Mr Schulze called the outcome 'a severe blow' but – depending on the final count and the fate of smaller parties – may still try to cobble together a multi-party coalition to cling to power.
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Schulze → call → power
The German Economic Institute (IW) has warned the AfD's immigration policy would be 'ruinous' for Saxony-Anhalt, which is highly reliant on foreign-born workers, especially in the health sector.
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which → warn → sector
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
