Germany’s far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) convened for the first session of the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament on the 6th of October; however, a month after the party’s successful election, there is still no clear path to forming a local government, reports Reuters.
Despite achieving its best-ever result in a state election, the AfD fell three seats short of an absolute majority—the goal set by its candidate for state premier, Ulrich Siegmund. Before the the 6th of October session, Siegmund stated he would seek the parliamentary support needed to become Saxony-Anhalt’s premier in the first round of voting. As the vote is now scheduled for December, he has more time to secure the necessary backing.
So far, the AfD has failed to garner sufficient support from potential partners or win over enough lawmakers from rival parties; consequently, efforts to form a government have not yielded results. The government formation deadlock highlights a challenge the party has faced for years: how to translate voter support into executive power within a political system where major parties refuse to cooperate with the AfD.
Founded in 2013 as an initially Eurosceptic movement, the AfD has attracted a large number of voters through its increasingly hardline stance against migration—particularly after the arrival of around a million asylum seekers in Germany in 2015. Since then, the party has become a dominant force across much of eastern Germany.
However, many remain opposed to cooperating with far-right forces.
On the 6th of October, around 400 peaceful protesters gathered outside the Saxony-Anhalt parliament in Magdeburg; before the parliamentary session, they read the German Constitution aloud, and several protesters held a red banner bearing the slogan “No cooperation with the far right.”
The inaugural session on the 6th of October nevertheless delivered a symbolic victory for the AfD. With support from the left-wing populist BSW, 35-year-old real estate entrepreneur and close associate of Sigmund, Tobias Rausch, was elected president of the state parliament. He has thus become the first AfD member to hold such a high-ranking position in German state government. Rausch used his inaugural speech to call on lawmakers to work together, adding that “political firewalls” should be a thing of the past.
The AfD’s successes in Saxony-Anhalt and two other federal states have increased pressure on the government of Friedrich Merz, and questions have arisen within his party regarding the effectiveness of the “political firewall.”
For several weeks, the AfD has been attempting to woo politicians away from Merz’s party, though there have been no reports so far of any politicians defecting to the right-wing camp.
The vote on the 6th of October also served as a test of whether the AfD could rely on the left-wing BSW. It is the only party that has not explicitly ruled out cooperation with the right, although it has rejected the idea of joining the AfD in a coalition government. The BSW has announced that it will abstain from the vote to appoint Sigmund as state premier. Like the AfD, the far-left party also opposes immigration and seeks to restore energy ties with Russia.
Consequently, the AfD might have to form a minority government—a model already in place in Thuringia. However, Siegmund has previously rejected this model, as it would make him overly dependent on smaller parties. The AfD’s candidate for minister-president has suggested that a re-run of the election could be held if sufficient support cannot be secured.
In the secret ballot for the position of parliamentary president, Rausch received 48 votes, meaning he garnered support not only from his own party and the BSW (which together hold 44 seats) but also from at least four lawmakers from other parties.