The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of German chancellor, Angela Merkel, saw off a challenge from the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Sunday in a state election, which many saw as a bellwether for a federal election due in September.
The election, held in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, saw the CDU win 37.1% of the vote, a seven percentage point increase compared to the previous state election in 2016.
The AfD, to the surprise of a number of commentators, saw its vote share decline to 20.8%, down from nearly a quarter of the vote in 2016.
In the 97-member state parliament the CDU now holds 40 seats, while the AfD has 22 seats. Other parties which hold seats in the legislature are the Left, which holds 12 seats (down from 16 in 2016); the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which now holds nine seats, down from eleven in the previous election; the Free Democrats, which went from having zero seats in 2016 to seven now; and the Greens, which also hold seven seats, up from its 2016 count of five.
For the past five years the state has been governed by a coalition of the CDU, the SPD, and the Greens, but the FDP are now likely to replace the SPD in a governing alliance.
The result will be a boost for the CDU ahead of September’s election, as the party struggled in a number of recent state elections and there were real concerns that the AfD could beat the CDU into second place on Sunday.
Latest opinion polls for September’s election have the CDU as the most popular party, but with just more a quarter of the vote. The Greens are currently second in polls with about 20%, followed by the SPD at 17%, and then the AfD and FDP, each polling at about 12%.
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