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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Kate Connolly in Berlin

Far-right AfD wins key German state election but falls just short of majority

Ulrich Siegmund speaks into a microphone and points upward at an AfD election event
The AfD’s candidate for governor, Ulrich Siegmund, says ‘we have written history’ and the party has a clear mandate to govern. Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP

The populist, far-right, anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has surged to a resounding victory in a crucial state election in Germany, but fell just short of winning a majority in its quest to form the country’s first far-right state government since the second world war.

The party of Germany’s unpopular chancellor Friedrich Merz, the Christian Democrats (CDU), slumped to a disastrous result in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.

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