The far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won a major victory in Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state election, receiving 43.8% of the vote and winning 39 of the legislature’s 83 seats. 

The party fell three seats short of an outright majority, meaning it cannot govern alone and must find support from other lawmakers to form a government.

The result was a major setback for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union, which received just 17.2% and lost about half of its previous support in the state. 

AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund said the party had received a clear mandate to govern, but Germany’s mainstream parties have maintained a political “firewall” against cooperating with the AfD, which German domestic intelligence classifies as a right-wing extremist group, the AP has reported.

The election has increased pressure on Merz and created uncertainty over whether the AfD can assemble enough support to lead a state government for the first time in postwar Germany.