Berlin built a wall around the AfD. Voters just smashed it

The revolt in Saxony-Anhalt is bigger than one party – it is a rejection of Germany’s economic model and the EU’ liberal consensus On the night of September 7, 2026, the results of landmark state elections were finalized in Berlin. Officially, the numbers recorded a crushing defeat for the ruling elites in one of Germany’s smaller states – Saxony-Anhalt, home to just 2.1 million people. Yet many are already interpreting these figures as a complete breakdown of Germany’s postwar political order. For the first time, the right-wing conservative party Alternative for Germany (AfD), led by Ulrich Siegmund, captured a historic 43.8% of the vote, coming within a single step of an absolute majority in the state parliament. Add to that the result of the left-wing conservatives from the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) at 5.3%, and the historic collapse of the CDU, which plummeted to 17.2%, and the math of Germany’s crisis becomes unforgiving: an overwhelming majority of residents in this eastern state officially voted for a radical break from the policies of the current federal government under German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.The long-standing Berlin consensus of the traditional parties – ...