Germany: AfD extremists win elections in Thuringia, come in second in Saxony, Chancellor Scholz says they are destroying the country's reputation and dividing society
Sunday's elections in the German state of Thuringia were won by the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is considered a populist-right or even far-right party. In Saxony, the AfD ended up in second place, right after the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
The preliminary results were published Sunday night by the statistical offices for those eastern states. While the AfD is celebrating, the election was a debacle for the parties in Germany’s governing coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The Social Democrats (SPD) earned votes in the single digits, while neither the Greens nor the Free Democrats (FDP) even made it into the state legislature in Thuringia. Difficult post-election negotiations are now anticipated about the formation of the state administrations, as no other parties want to collaborate with the AfD.
The Reuters news agency quoted Scholz as saying the AfD results are “disturbing”. “We cannot and we must not get used to this. The AfD is destroying Germany. It is weakening the economy, dividing society, and destroying our country’s reputation,” the chancellor said, emphasizing that he was commenting in his role as a Social Democrat.
Scholz called his party’s results “bitter”. He also called for the state administrations in Saxony and Thuringia to form without the far-right in power.
The preliminary results after the counting of all the votes roughly correspond to the prognoses published on Sunday by public broadcasters ARD and ZDF after the polls closed. For the first time since the Second World War, a party categorized as far-right has won a state election in Germany.
The AfD is being surveilled by the federal counter-intelligence service because of its activities. The Saxon and Thuringian secret services categorize the party as one that is demonstrably engaging in extremism.
In both Saxony and Thuringia the AfD won more than 30 % of the vote. However, since the other parties reject it, the party will apparently not be seated in either state administration.
In Thuringia, according to the state statistical office, the AfD won with 32.8 % of the vote, while the second-place CDU came in far behind with just 23.6 %. The Saxon state statistical office reported victory for the CDU and incumbent state Minister President Michael Kretschmer.
The AfD placed a very close second in Saxony with 30.6 % of the vote. Both federal states were created after the German Democratic Republic (DDR) came to an end, and third place in both states went to the new left-wing protest party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which broke away from the post-commuist Die Linke (The Left) party.
The BSW became a party in January 2024. In Thuringia it won 15.8 % of the vote, in Saxony 11.8 %, according to the initial estimates.
The BSW combines left-wing economic policy with immigration scepticism. It also criticizes anti-Russian sanctions and calls for negotiations with Russia on how to achieve peace in Ukraine, which Moscow invaded two and a half years ago.
In both Saxony and Thuringia, Scholz’s governing coalition has experienced a debacle. The SPD, which won the elections to the federal parliament (the Bundestag) in 2021, won 7.3 % of the vote in Saxony and just 6.1 % in Thuringia.
Those are the worst results for the SPD in any state elections since the creation of the federal republic in 1949. The Greens barely made it into the Saxon state legislature with 5.1 % of the vote, and did not cross the 5 % threshold necessary to be seated in the state legislature in Thuringia.
The Greens won just 3.2 % of the vote in Thuringia. The third member of the federal governing coalition in Berlin, the FDP, will not be represented for the next four years in either the Saxon or the Thuringian state legislatures.
Speaking on Sunday, state-level politicians from the parties in the governing coalition called the results a disappointment and called on the federal government to do a better job. Elections to the Bundestag will be held in September 2025.
In Thuringia, The Left, led by incumbent state prime minister Bod Ramelow, did make it into the state legislature. The party won 13.1 % of the vote.
In Saxony, The Left did not cross the 5 % threshold but will still be represented in the state legislature thanks to preferential voting, through which people are able to vote not just for a party list, but also give preferential votes to specific candidates. One such seat was also won through preferential voting by the Free Voters (FW) party there.
Election turnout was high. In Saxony turnout was 74.4 % compared to 66.5 % four years ago.
In Thuringia, 73.6 % of the voters came to the polls compared to 64.9 % in 2019. Complex political negotiations now await both states.
After the initial estimates were published on Sunday, it seemed the CDU might form a coalition with the BSW and SPD in Thuringia, but according to the preliminary results they will not have a majority and will have to invite The Left to collaborate with them either directly or indirectly. The CDU has long refused to cooperate with any far-left party and many CDU members also have a problem with the BSW because its founder, Wagenknecht, was a member of the communist Socialist Unity Party (SED) in the GDR.
The CDU is also ruling out any collaboration with the far-right AfD. In Saxony, according to the initial estimates, it seemed that Minister President Kretschmer might be able to maintain the current coalition with the Greens and the SPD, but the preliminary results have shown that they did not win a majority.
The most likely coalition government to form in Dresden will therefore be the BSW, CDU and SPD.
