The 2026 Saxony-Anhalt state election was held on 6 September 2026 to elect the 9th Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt. It took place two weeks before the state elections in Berlin and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. This election drew significant national and international attention due to the performance of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), including the possibility of it getting an absolute majority. The far-right AfD is subject to a firewall policy as all other major parties refuse to cooperate with it; its state branch is under surveillance by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which classified it as a "confirmed right-wing extremist movement" in 2023.
The AfD secured a plurality of the vote, doubling its support to 43.8%, but failed to gain a majority of seats. The governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lost more than half of its previous vote share with 17.2%. The Social Democratic Party (SPD), Alliance 90/The Greens, and The Left each got about 9%. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) barely passed the 5% election threshold, while the Free Democratic Party (FDP) lost representation.
Voter turnout was an all-time high of 77.8%, up from 60% in 2021. The AfD candidates won 38 of the 41 single-member constituencies, with the remaining three won by The Left. The size of the parliament matches the nominal 83 seats for the first time as the AfD's result is large enough that there are no overhang seats. A tactical voting campaign supported the SPD and Greens, which were polling at or below the election threshold in the summer, and both ended with small gains compared to 2021.
Background In Saxony-Anhalt, the CDU has been the largest political party since the 2002 Saxony-Anhalt state election. In the 2021 Saxony-Anhalt state election, the CDU emerged again as the strongest party. The AfD experienced slight losses but remained the second-largest force. Contrary to pre-election predictions of a tight race between the CDU and the AfD, the CDU secured a 16-percentage-point lead over the AfD. The Left also recorded losses, achieving 11% of the vote. The SPD suffered its worst result in Saxony-Anhalt's history. With 6.4% of the vote, the FDP returned to the state parliament after a decade-long absence. The Greens secured 5.9%, retaining parliamentary representation.
The AfD has remained subject to Germany's firewall policy, under which the country's major political parties exclude cooperation with the party. Its state branch is also monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). The branch was classified as a "confirmed right-wing extremist movement" in 2023, a designation that has continued to be reflected in subsequent assessments by the authorities. The classification followed the branch's designation as a suspected extremist case in 2021 and was based on information collected by the state constitutional protection authority concerning positions it considered incompatible with the principles of human dignity, democracy, and the rule of law.
Due to the small majority and potential fragility of a grand coalition between the CDU and the SPD, the FDP was included and formed a black-red-yellow coalition, with the same political colors as the German flag and thus known as the "Germany coalition", consisting of all three parties that were represented in the West-Germany-only Bundestag from 1961 to 1983. Reiner Haseloff (CDU) was re-elected as Minister-President only in the second ballot. The coalition government held a clear majority in the state parliament with 56 of the 97 seats. Haseloff retired in January 2026 and was replaced by Sven Schulze. The 2026 state elections in Berlin and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are scheduled to be held two weeks later, with the possibility that a strong AfD result in Saxony-Anhalt could shape the dynamics of the other two elections, potentially mobilising support for the leading left-leaning parties.
Election date According to Article 43 of the State Constitution, the state election must take place between the 58th and 62nd month after the start of the legislative period, unless the period is terminated early. The 8th Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt had its first session on 6 July 2021. Consequently, possible election dates initially included all Sundays and public holidays between 10 May and 6 September 2026. In May 2025, the state parliament designated 6 September 2026, thus the last possible day, as the election date.
Electoral system
The State Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt consists of at least 83 members, although this number may increase due to overhang and compensatory mandates. Of these, 41 members are directly elected in constituencies, while the remaining seats are allocated to parties based on their state lists. Each voter has two votes: a first vote (Erststimme) to elect a constituency representative and a second vote (Zweitstimme) to select a party's state list, which determines the proportional distribution of seats in the parliament. The allocation of seats is governed by the Hare-Niemeyer method, with only parties receiving at least 5% of the valid second votes considered for proportional distribution. The State Election Committee oversees the process, first determining the total second votes cast for each state list. Seats are then distributed as follows:
The committee identifies the number of seats won by independent constituency candidates and by parties that fail to meet the 5% threshold. These are subtracted from the base number of 83 seats to calculate the seats available for proportional allocation. The remaining seats are distributed among qualifying parties based on their second vote totals. Each party's share is calculated by multiplying the total seats by the party's second votes, divided by the total second votes of all qualifying parties. Whole seats are assigned first, and any remaining seats are allocated based on the highest fractional remainders. In case of ties, a lottery conducted by the State Election Officer decides. If a party with over half of the second votes receives less than half of the available seats, it is awarded an additional seat before further distribution. Seats won in constituencies are deducted from a party's total allocated seats, with the remainder filled from the party's state list in the order specified. Candidates already elected in constituencies are excluded from the state list allocation. Overhang mandates occur when a party wins more constituency seats than its proportional share. In such cases, the total number of parliamentary seats increases by twice the number of overhang seats, and the distribution process is repeated. If overhang seats persist, they are retained by the party, and the total number of seats is adjusted accordingly. This process continues until the overhang seats no longer exceed half the number required to form a parliamentary group, calculated as the seats a hypothetical party with 5% of second votes would receive. Non-elected candidates on state lists of parties securing at least one seat are designated as substitutes in the order determined by the State Election Committee, excluding those already elected in constituencies. The election adheres to the provisions of the Saxony-Anhalt Election Law (Landeswahlgesetz, LWG), as published on 18 February 2010, and the state's electoral regulations.
Parties NameIdeologyLead Candidate2021 result Votes (%) Seats 1CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christian democracy Sven Schulze37.1% 2AfD Alternative for Germany Right-wing populism Ulrich Siegmund20.8% 3Linke The Left Democratic socialism Eva von Angern11.0% 4SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany Social democracy Armin Willingmann8.4% 5FDP Free Democratic Party Classical liberalism Lydia Hüskens6.4% 6Grüne Alliance 90/The Greens Green politics Susan Sziborra-Seidlitz5.9% The following minor parties submitted a state list of candidates to the returning officer and were approved to appear on the ballot:
Free Voters (FW) Grassroots Democratic Party of Germany (dieBasis) Party Human Climate Animal-Protection (Tierschutzpartei) Garden Party (Gartenpartei) The Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative (Die PARTEI) Alliance for Human Rights, Animal and Nature Protection (Tierschutzallianz) Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) Party of Progress (PdF) Volt Germany (Volt)
Campaign
Lead candidates CDU Then Minister-President Reiner Haseloff announced on 7 August 2025 that he would not seek re-election in 2026. Sven Schulze was selected to be the CDU's lead candidate. On 28 January 2026, Schulze was elected Minister-President. Previously, he had served as a member of the European Parliament for seven years. In 2021, he became the CDU's state chairman. Schulze was the State Minister for Economic Affairs in the Third Haseloff cabinet.
AfD In a state party conference in Magdeburg, Ulrich Siegmund was selected by the AfD to be its lead candidate, getting 98.3% of the votes. Since 2016, Siegmund has been a member of the Landtag. In 2022, Oliver Kirchner, chair of the AfD parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt, proposed that both of them could be lead candidate. Shortly after, Siegmund began co-chairing the parliamentary group with Kirchner. Siegmund was chair of the social affairs committee until February 2024 when the parliament voted to remove him from the role due to his participation in the 2023 Potsdam far-right meeting.
The AfD campaign focused on restrictive immigration and remigration, including a proposed "deportation and remigration offensive" and tighter immigration controls. It proposed separate classes for refugee children as part of its education policy. The party also called for replacing compulsory schooling with a general education requirement and proposed a cash "welcome bonus" for each newborn. It sought to reduce public broadcasting to a "basic service" and to reverse the energy transition in favour of fossil fuels and nuclear power. Its programme also called for stricter asylum and security policies, including faster deportations and expanded detention capacity for deportees. Finally, it advocated a more explicitly patriotic cultural policy, including replacing the state's #moderndenken campaign with #deutschdenken, and replacing rainbow flags with German flags on public buildings.
On 13 August 2026, German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel had a mug-shot style photo of him on its cover, calling him "the most dangerous man in Germany". Siegmund used the magazine cover for his campaign, signing many copies, while Der Spiegel had to defend the move. During an AfD campaign event in Dessau-Roßlau (Saxony-Anhalt) in July 2026, AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla and Ulrich Siegmund would sing the former East German (GDR) national anthem "Risen from Ruins", and afterwards the German national anthem was also sung. Martin Huber from the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) criticised the playing of the former GDR anthem.
Left Eva von Angern was selected to be the Left's lead candidate after getting a large majority of votes at a party conference in Leuna. She was nominated by the party's two state chairs: Janina Böttger and Hendrik Lange. Von Angern has been a member of the state parliament since 2002 and deputy chair of the Left's state parliamentary group from 2014 until she became the chair in 2020. Additionally, she was the lead candidate for her party in the 2021 Saxony-Anhalt state election, where the Left suffered record losses, although Dietmar Bartsch, the then-leader of The Left's national parliamentary group, argued that this was partly due to tactical voting.
SPD