Germany, at the, just won for the first time since Hitler, it being a far-right political party. Please include the details. Thank you.
Yes. There’s an important distinction here: Germany’s far-right AfD has just won a state election in a historic landslide, but it has not yet actually taken control of the state government. The result is nevertheless one of the biggest political shocks Germany has experienced since World War II.
Germany’s far right just made history
On September 6, 2026, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) won approximately 43.8% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, an eastern German state. That put the AfD roughly 27 percentage points ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which received only about 17%.
This is the strongest state-election result ever achieved by the AfD and the most significant electoral breakthrough for Germany’s far right since the Nazi era. More precisely, however, it is the first time since World War II that a far-right party has come this close to actually controlling a German state government.
And that’s where the story gets particularly interesting.
It wasn’t an outright majority
The AfD won 39 of the 83 seats in the Saxony-Anhalt legislature. It therefore fell three seats short of the majority required to govern by itself.
So the headline shouldn’t be “Germany elected a Nazi government.” That’s not what happened.
The accurate headline is:
Germany’s far-right AfD won a historic state election and is now on the verge of potentially forming Germany’s first far-right state government since World War II.
That’s still enormous.
Why the AfD is so controversial
The AfD is not simply a conventional conservative party. It campaigns heavily on anti-immigration and nationalist policies, wants significantly tougher immigration restrictions and deportations, favors much closer relations with Russia, and opposes continued German support for Ukraine. Germany’s domestic intelligence authorities have classified the party as right-wing extremist in parts of the country, including Saxony-Anhalt.
Germany’s history makes this particularly sensitive.
After Adolf Hitler and the Nazi dictatorship, German political institutions developed an informal “firewall” — the idea that mainstream democratic parties should not cooperate with extremist parties such as the AfD.
For decades, that firewall largely worked.
Now it is under enormous pressure.
The firewall could be cracking
The AfD needs only a few additional lawmakers to obtain a governing majority. It is attempting to persuade politicians from other parties to support its government, while mainstream parties insist they will not cooperate with it.
There is another potential complication: the BSW, a populist left-wing party, has positions that overlap with the AfD on issues including immigration and Russia and could potentially play a role in determining who governs Saxony-Anhalt.
That creates an extraordinary situation in German politics: parties on opposite ends of the traditional political spectrum could potentially help produce Germany’s first postwar far-right state government.
Why did voters turn toward the AfD?
A major factor appears to be anger with the established political system.
Germany has been struggling with economic stagnation, political dissatisfaction, immigration concerns and frustration with the federal government’s performance. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU suffered a devastating defeat in Saxony-Anhalt, and Merz acknowledged that the result had shaken his party “to its very foundations.”
The AfD has successfully turned that frustration into a political weapon.
Its message is essentially: the mainstream parties have failed, Germany is changing too quickly, immigration is out of control, and voters need to take their country back.
That message has now attracted nearly 44% of voters in one German state.
And this isn’t necessarily the end of the story
The bigger concern for Germany’s established parties is what happens next.
Other state elections are approaching, including elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, and the AfD is already competitive in parts of the country.
The AfD is also looking toward the 2029 federal election. Its success in Saxony-Anhalt gives the party something it desperately wanted: proof that its support can translate into overwhelming electoral victories rather than merely protest votes.
So, no, Hitler’s political party has not returned, and Germany has not just elected a Nazi government.
But something historically significant has happened:
For the first time since the fall of Nazi Germany, a far-right party has won a German state election with nearly 44% of the vote and is seriously positioned to take control of a state government.
That is why politicians across Germany and Europe are treating this as much more than an ordinary regional election.