Germany – elections in Thuringia and Saxony. Exit poll results, what is the result of the AfD

Voting for regional parliaments took place in Saxony and Thuringia on Sunday. Voting began at 8 a.m., and polling stations closed at 6 p.m.

After the premises were closed, the first forecasts of results based on research appeared exit poll.

According to survey ZDF television exit poll in Thuringia Alternative for German (AfD) could win 33.5 percent of the votes (in 2019 it won 24.5 percent), and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) 24.5 percent. According to polls, the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BWF) could win 14.5 percent.

The Left Party received 11.5 percent, and Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) – 6.5 percent of the votes. The Greens and FDP achieved results below the 5 percent electoral threshold.

The exit poll by broadcaster ZDF shows that the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has narrowly won in Saxony, beating the Alternative for Germany (AfD) by half a percentage point. The CDU can count on 32.1 percent of support, while the AfD has 31.5 percent of votes. Here, Sara Wagenknecht's Alliance came in third with 11.5 percent.

An exit poll by rival broadcaster ARD gave the Christian Democrats a slightly larger lead.

WATCH THE “BLACK AND WHITE” REPORT ON AFD – “THE TERRIBLE ALTERNATIVE” ON TVN24 GO

Germany will hold national elections in a year. As Reuters points out, the preliminary results of Sunday's election seem to punish Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition, which includes the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Alliance '90/Greens party and Free Democratic Party.

Scholz's SPD party topped the polling threshold in both states, but the Greens and Free Democrats came in behind, which Reuters reports could herald even greater conflict in Scholz's already embattled coalition government.

Saxony's head of government, Michael Kretschmer of the CDU, said these were the most important elections in the state since German reunification. “It's about the life chances of all of us who want to live here in Saxony,” he said.

During the voting in Thuringia, the police recorded several electoral incidents. In Erfurt, someone painted graffiti in front of eleven polling stations with the words: “Hoecke is a Nazi,” according to the MDR portal. Bjoern Hoecke is the leader of the Thuringian Alternative for Germany (AfD) and is known for his extreme views. The court convicted him in May 2024 for use of the banned phrase “Alles fuer Deutschland”, the slogan of the SA (Sturmabteilung), the Storm Troops of the NSDAP paramilitary militia, at a rally in Merseburg in May 2021.

In another polling station in Thuringia, a man wanted to vote in an AfD T-shirt. The polling station manager asked him to take it off because campaigning in the polling station is prohibited. Although the man complied, he threatened as he was leaving the polling station that he would “come back here again.”

Around 1,300 AfD supporters attended a rally on Saturday with Hoecke and party chairwoman Alice Weidel, the dpa news agency reported, citing information from Erfurt authorities.

Just 100 meters away from the AfD, up to 3,000 people protested against right-wing extremism in Thuringia. Heavy police presence was in the city. “There were no serious incidents at either rally,” authorities said. “The AfD could make history in Thuringia and Saxony on Sunday, and in a few weeks in Brandenburg if it wins the elections,” Weidel said. Hoecke also said the AfD could “make history” on Sunday.

AfD supporters repeatedly shouted “Ost-, Ost-, Ostdeutschland” (East Germany), but also “deport, deport”.

The counter-demonstration was organized by the alliance “Auf die Plaetze” among others. The demonstrators shouted, among other things, “Nazis out” and “Hoecke out”. “We will not allow the AfD to dominate the election weekend with its far-right agitation, to intimidate people and to abuse our city as a stage for its propaganda,” the alliance explained.

Thuringia and Saxony, like the other German states, have their own parliaments – Landtags. These parliaments primarily pass laws at the state level, elect their prime minister and control the state government. In Germany, the state politics are responsible for culture, education and regional development.

Thuringia, with its two million inhabitants and its capital in Erfurt, is located in the central part of Germany, in the former GDR. After German reunification in 1990. Until 2014, the Christian Democratic Party CDU ruled in Thuringia. Since the 2014 elections Thuringia is located under the rule of the Left Party (Die Linke), the SPD and the Greensheaded by Bodo Ramelow (The Left).

On September 1, state elections are also held in the eastern German state of Saxony, which borders Poland. In the week leading up to the elections, federal politicians from all parties visited Saxony. The Greens' Minister of Economics, Robert Habeck, was in Leipzig, the SPD's Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Delitzsch, FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner in Dresden, AfD parliamentary group leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel in Dresden, Left Party politician Gregor Gysi in Zwickau – “they are all fighting for the votes of 3.3 million eligible voters in Saxony.”

Saxony has traditionally been a stronghold of the CDU. The party achieved its greatest successes in the 1990s under Kurt Biedenkopf, winning an absolute majority of voters. In addition CDU consistently has been serving as prime minister since 1990. Five years ago however, she had to conclude three-party alliance with the Greens and the SPD.