AfD wins Saxony-Anhalt in a landslide, Merz calls it a shock for Germany

The far-right Alternative for Germany won the final count with 43.8% of the vote in Sunday's Saxony-Anhalt state election, more than doubling its 2021 result, while Chancellor Merz's CDU fell to 17.2%; the party is still three seats short of an outright majority, and every mainstream party maintains its 'firewall' refusing to govern with it. Merz said the result had 'changed not only Saxony-Anhalt, but Germany as a whole' and that he was 'profoundly shocked.' It is the closest a far-right party has come to power in a German state since the Second World War.

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