AfD still struggles to form a government after winning in Saxony-Anhalt

Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) attended the first session of the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament on 6 October, yet a month after its successful election it still has no clear route to forming a local government, Reuters reports.

Three seats short

The AfD achieved its best-ever result in a German state election, but it fell three seats short of an absolute majority. That was the goal of its candidate for premier, Ulrich Siegmund. He said he wanted to win enough parliamentary support to become premier in the first round of voting. That vote will not take place until December, which gives him more time to gather the necessary backing.

So far the AfD has failed to win sufficient support from potential partners or to attract enough lawmakers from rival parties. The impasse highlights a long-standing problem: how to turn voter support into executive power when the major parties refuse to cooperate with the AfD.

Symbolic win and protest

With votes from the left-wing populist BSW, 35-year-old real estate entrepreneur Tobias Rausch, a confidant of Siegmund, was elected speaker of the parliament. He is the first AfD member to hold such a high office in German public administration. In the secret ballot Rausch received 48 votes. The AfD and BSW together hold 44, so he must have been backed by at least four lawmakers from other parties. In his inaugural speech he urged lawmakers to work together and said that "political firewalls" should be consigned to the past.

About 400 peaceful protesters gathered outside the parliament in Magdeburg and read the German constitution aloud. One placard read: "No cooperation with the far right".

Possible solutions

The BSW is the only party that has not explicitly ruled out working with the right, but it has rejected joining an AfD coalition and has said it will abstain in the vote on Siegmund as premier. Both parties oppose immigration and want to restore energy ties with Russia.

The AfD may therefore have to form a minority government, a model already in place in Thuringia. Siegmund has previously dismissed that option because it would make him too dependent on small parties. He has also floated the idea of fresh elections if he cannot secure enough support.

The AfD's gains in Saxony-Anhalt and two other states have increased pressure on Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government, and his party is again debating how effective the "political firewall" is. The AfD has spent several weeks trying to lure politicians away from Merz's party, but no defections have been reported.