Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has come “very, very close” to taking power, deputy parliamentary leader Beatrix von Storch said, after the party’s historic election win in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. She made the remarks to the BBC.
According to preliminary results published Sunday local time, AfD won 43.8% of the vote in the state, falling just three seats short of a majority. The party is now trying to secure support from other parties or independent lawmakers to form a government.
The BBC reported that most German political parties have refused to work with AfD. However, von Storch has called on the opposition to come to the table for talks.
“You cannot say that you don’t accept the people’s vote,” she said.
No far-right party has controlled a German state government since World War II. If AfD manages to form a state government, it would gain power over key matters including policing and the local education system.
Von Storch said that if other parties refuse to work with AfD, “we could fall into extreme chaos, and new elections might have to be called.”
Ulrich Siegmund, leader of AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt branch, made similar remarks. At a news conference Monday, he said AfD had received a “clear mandate” to form a government.
Saxony-Anhalt has a population of about 2.1 million. The state’s domestic intelligence agency has classified the local AfD branch as “right-wing extremist.” But Siegmund, 35, has rejected that classification.
Siegmund said talks with other parties began Sunday night. He said those discussions could take days or even weeks to conclude.
“We are reaching out to everyone first. We will hold talks, and then we’ll see whether any parliamentary parties or lawmakers are interested in working with us,” he said.
In Saxony-Anhalt’s 83-seat state parliament, AfD is on track to win 39 seats. A single-party majority requires 42 seats. However, final election results have not yet been published.
Von Storch told the BBC that AfD is also in talks with several lawmakers from the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
The CDU, one of Germany’s governing parties, was also the largest party in Saxony-Anhalt’s outgoing coalition government. Von Storch claims those CDU lawmakers are “very, very unhappy with their own party.”
According to preliminary results, the CDU won 17.2% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt.