The CDU clearly won the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff's party came to around 36 percent of the vote on Sunday according to initial forecasts and was thus clearly ahead of the AfD, which ranked just under 23 percent in the forecasts. In the last state elections in 2016, the AfD had jumped to 24.3 percent of the vote, the CDU to 29.8. The left, which had received 16.3 percent in 2016, lost according to initial forecasts and came to around eleven percent. The SPD undercuts its historically bad result of the last state election (10.6 percent) and received only around 8 percent. Greens and the FDP were able to win. The Free Democrats, who just failed to pass the five percent hurdle in 2016, managed to get back into the Magdeburg state parliament with around 6.5 percent.The Greens also performed significantly better at 6.5 percent than five years ago, when they had come to 5.2 percent.

In the election campaign, the possible performance of the AfD had also played an important role for the other parties. Prime Minister Haseloff had spoken out clearly against any cooperation with the right-wing populists, even if voices in his party had repeatedly been voiced to sound out some form of cooperation with the AfD. Last year Haseloff dismissed his Interior Minister Holger Stahlknecht after he brought a minority CDU government into play in an interview, for which the Christian Democrats needed the votes of the AfD. Stahlknecht, who at that time had already been traded as the successor to Haseloff, subsequently also resigned as state chairman of the CDU.

AfD top candidate Oliver Kirchner had expressed the hope that his party would become the strongest force when he cast his vote on Sunday in Magdeburg.

Kirchner restricted the fact that he was also satisfied with a result between 22 and 26 percent.

"I would like this to be a trend-setting result for the federal election," said Kirchner.

Haseloff: goods closed in the party and in the country

According to the first prognosis, the jubilation at the CDU was huge. Prime Minister and CDU top candidate Reiner Haseloff said: “I am overjoyed and am pleased with this trust. I promise people that I will do what they expect from me. "The Union fought as a united union and was victorious as a union, that is the message to Berlin". The CDU will now “speak to all democratic parties”. Shortly before, the CDU state chairman Sven Schulze had declared that the CDU would "neither exchange a word with the AFD nor with the Left Party".

AfD co-chairman Tino Chrupalla described the AfD's performance as "a very good result, we are very satisfied with it".

According to Chrupalla, the people in Saxony-Anhalt voted “conservative-bourgeois”.

“We have increased significantly among blue-collar workers and medium-sized businesses.

The middle class clearly voted for the AfD. "

The SPD top candidate Katja Pähle was disappointed with the performance of her party.

"The AfD has lost points, that is a success of democracy," she said.

"I hope that Haselhoff will continue to stand firm against the AfD." However, red-red-green was “unfortunately a long way off”.

Brinkhaus: tailwind for the federal CDU

The results in Saxony-Anhalt had also been eagerly awaited in federal politics. As the last state election before the federal election in September, it was considered an important mood test for all parties, but especially for the CDU chairman and Union chancellor candidate Armin Laschet. In the event of a particularly poor performance by the CDU, Laschet, who had only prevailed against CSU chairman Markus Söder in the struggle for the Union's candidacy for chancellor, would have been considered damaged. Especially in the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt, with a view to the upcoming election, many had campaigned for Söder, who had been trusted to mobilize significantly more voters for the CDU.