Saxony-Anhalt state governor Reiner Haseloff of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party speaks to media after election in Magdeburg, Germany, June 6, 2021.
Merkel's party has been a dominant force in the former East German state of Saxony-Anhalt for decades, topping all but one edition of state elections there since reunification in 1990. At Germany's last regional elections in March – in the states of Rhineland Palatinate and Baden-Wuerttemberg – the CDU suffered its worst ever results in both states.
The result, up from 29.8 in 2016, was "the largest increase in a state election since the victory of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2017" – a win that Laschet had secured for the CDU. The AfD established a strong foothold in Saxony-Anhalt with 24 percent of the vote in 2016, having capitalised on anger over Merkel's decision to allow in a wave of migrants from conflict-torn countries such as Syria in 2015.
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