No, the nightmare didn't come true.
It was not the AfD that emerged from the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt as the strongest force, but again the CDU, and with a result that can only be described as sensational.
However, between the Altmark and Burgenland, it was not the party that tipped the balance for the triumph of the Union, but one person: Reiner Haseloff.
He had already shown during the refugee crisis that the Catholic from Wittenberg cannot bend and bend.
Even during the corona pandemic and in the dispute within the Union over the candidacy for chancellor, Haseloff was an often uncomfortable voice within the federal party from an often overheard and overlooked region.
Everything would have been different without Haseloff
But if the prime minister had not made himself available for another term of office in view of the self-destructive forces in the state party and unambiguously defined the boundaries between the Union and the AfD, every bet on the outcome of the state election would have been a Vabanque game.
As it is, Haseloff, like his colleagues in office Michael Kretschmer (CDU) in Saxony and Bodo Ramelow (Left Party) in Thuringia, has the mandate to form a new government. This endeavor will not be easy. Coalitions are not only a question of arithmetic, but also of political intersections. To pacify competing claims through money for everyone and everything, as the Union and SPD in the federal government up to today, should be out of the question in view of the budgetary situation in Saxony-Anhalt. Like all budgets, this will groan for a long time under the burdens of the corona pandemic.
But regardless of budgetary constraints, the question arises as to what and for whom the potential coalition partners stand for. While Haseloff's CDU performed far better than the federal party on the Sunday issue, the Social Democrats and Greens are considerably lower. You should ask yourself why your program and staff no longer reach the hearts and minds of people in Central Germany (according to the SPD) or still not (Greens). The same applies to the Left Party, which is now a shadow of itself in Saxony-Anhalt. The resurrection of the FDP is all the more remarkable. The citizens' signals critical of the government were more popular than they had been for decades.