Live Updates: Germany’s Far Right Leads Regional Election, Exit Polls Show

 

Live Updates: Germany’s Far Right Leads Regional Election, Exit Polls Show

The Alternative for Germany party was projected to finish first in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, but it was not clear whether they would win a majority — which would propel a far-right party into power for the first time since World War II.

 

Updated

Sept. 6, 2026, 12:09 p.m. ET2 minutes ago

Jim Tankersley and Christopher F. SchuetzeReporting from Berlin and Magdeburg, Germany

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/09/06/world/germany-election

 

Here’s the latest.

Exit polls on Sunday projected that the Alternative for Germany party would finish first in a state election in Saxony-Anhalt, eastern Germany, raising the possibility that the far right might take power in part of the country for the first time since the end of the Nazi era.

 

The exit polls, published by German public television stations, suggested that the Alternative for Germany, known by its German initials AfD, would win between 39 and 41 seats, just short of an absolute majority of 42, but far ahead of its nearest rival.

 

Because the polls have margins of error, it was too early to tell whether the AfD’s final share of the vote would be enough to allow the party to govern without the help of rivals, which say they will refuse to join any coalition with the far right.

 

Full results are expected around 9 p.m. in Germany (3 p.m. Eastern).

 

The result will reverberate through the national Parliament in Berlin, where the AfD is the largest opposition group to the governing coalition of center-right and center-left parties. The outcome could also offer lessons about the strength of populist movements around the world.

 

The AfD is a pariah among Germany’s political establishment and has been designated by German intelligence a “suspected extremist” group. Some of the party’s leaders have played down the Holocaust and adopted Nazi slogans. Others have strong ties to Russia. The party has also said that Islam is incompatible with the German Constitution and has vowed mass deportations of immigrants.

 

The AfD rejects accusations of extremism as politically motivated.

 

The party has appealed to voters in Saxony-Anhalt with promises to revitalize a sagging economy, deport immigrants and sideline mainstream parties that have long governed the state.

 

The party’s supporters, particularly in states in eastern Germany, call the AfD their best chance to break centrist parties’ hold on political power in the postwar period. The AfD has courted voters in Saxony-Anhalt with policies including paring back social assistance for immigrants and increasing financial support for native-born German families with a father and a mother.