{"id":223370,"date":"2026-09-07T10:18:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T10:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/german-far-right-party-set-for-strong-win-in-regional-election-but-uncertain-of-governing-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T10:18:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T10:18:21","slug":"german-far-right-party-set-for-strong-win-in-regional-election-but-uncertain-of-governing-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/german-far-right-party-set-for-strong-win-in-regional-election-but-uncertain-of-governing-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"German far-right party set for strong win in regional election but uncertain of governing – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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MAGDEBURG, Germany \u2014 The far-right Alternative for Germany was projected to win a strong victory in a regional election Sunday, but it wasn\u2019t immediately clear whether it would be able to fulfill its ambition of forming the country\u2019s first far-right state government since World War II.
The party\u2019s 35-year-old charismatic candidate for governor of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt hailed what he called a historic showing and said that Germany\u2019s unpopular leader, Chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/a>, had helped his campaign.
Ulrich Siegmund told ARD public broadcaster that \u201cwe have written history.\u201d Voters, he said, had sent a signal that \u201cthings cannot carry on like this.\u201d
It was \u201calso a signal toward Berlin,\u201d Siegmund said. Of Germany\u2019s leader, he added: \u201cA very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz. Every day this man is in the chancellery is one too many.\u201d
Alternative for Germany, or AfD, went into the vote seeking an absolute majority in the state legislature to govern on its own. That would overcome the so-called firewall<\/a> of mainstream parties\u2019 refusal to work with AfD, but it was unclear after polls closed whether it would happen.
A first state government would be the biggest prize in the anti-migration party\u2019s 13-year history, at a time of widespread discontent with an unpopular national government that has yet to persuade voters that it can get the country\u2019s sluggish economy<\/a> moving.
Whether or not AfD can form a government, the projected result is a blow to Merz, whose center-right party has led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years. Unlike other countries in Europe, modern Germany hasn\u2019t yet had a far-right or right-wing populist party leading a national, state or major-city government.
AfD\u2019s regional branch in Saxony-Anhalt is one of several classified by the domestic intelligence agency as a proven right-wing extremist group. AfD vehemently rejects accusations of extremism.
Projections for ARD and ZDF public television, based on exit polls and early counting, put AfD at around 44% of the vote, more than double its showing five years ago in the region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin.
That was far ahead of the Christian Democratic Union, the center-right party of Merz that has led the state for 24 years, which was seen polling 18.5% and losing about half its support. The Left Party and the center-left Social Democrats and Greens were seen taking around 9% each.
It was unclear whether the BSW party would get the 5% of the vote needed to win seats. The projections put AfD at least marginally short of an absolute majority, though that could change.
AfD\u2019s national co-leader, Alice Weidel, described the projected result as \u201csensational\u201d and said that \u201cwe have received a very clear mandate to govern here.\u201d The party\u2019s \u201chand is outstretched to all who want to make Saxony-Anhalt better and move Germany forward,\u201d she said.
A visibly disappointed incumbent governor, Sven Schulze, congratulated AfD on becoming the state\u2019s strongest political force and said that \u201cwe as the CDU will also have to deal with this result,\u201d without specifying how.
Franziska Hoppermann, the national general secretary of Merz\u2019s party, said that it was \u201ca very difficult result for us.\u201d She and others rejected the idea of backing off their refusal to deal with AfD.
Germany\u2019s 16 states have extensive powers, for example in overseeing security matters and running the education system.
Siegmund has listed among his top priorities \u201cthe deportation of people who are illegal, a deportation offensive and above all dropping the incentives for why people come here and exploit our social system.\u201d He wants to initiate a long process to withdraw Saxony-Anhalt from the regional public broadcaster, citing concerns about \u201cdisinformation.\u201d
AfD in Saxony-Anhalt wants to allow home schooling, which so far isn\u2019t permitted in Germany. It pledges to ban schools from officially raising the rainbow flag and ensure they fly the national flag. It opposes taxpayers\u2019 money being \u201cgiven away\u201d to Ukraine and says it would push to lift sanctions against Russia, but that isn\u2019t a matter state governments can decide.
The Associated Press
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeMAGDEBURG, Germany \u2014 The far-right Alternative for Germany was projected to win a strong victory in a regional election Sunday, but it wasn\u2019t immediately clear whether it would be able to fulfill its ambition of forming the country\u2019s first far-right state government since World War II.The party\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}