afd
Germany's far-right AfD clearly won a regional election on Sunday, getting almost 44% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt. Getty Images

Germany's far-right AfD clearly won a regional election on Sunday, a result seen a significant boost for the party and a prelude to the pursuit of the national government.

AfD got almost 44% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, more than 25 percentage points above the incumbent Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU), which leads the national coalition under Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

However, AfD fell short of a majority, getting 39 parliamentary seats out of 83. It is uncertain whether it will be able to form an alliance with another party and lead a ruling coalition. Other parties have in the past decided not to cooperate with the far right. The party won the most votes in Thuringia two years ago but didn't manage to form a coalition and a CDU governor took power with a minority government. However, the AfD is much closer to a majority now.

AfD candidate Ulrich Siegemund said the party will hold discussions with "individual parliamentary groups or individual MPs" to reach the threshold. He also told public broadcaster ARD that voters decided "things cannot carry on like this" and "a very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz."

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The party has championed policies against the status quo regarding migrants and refugees, including accelerated deportations and the separation of refugee children in different classrooms. It has also discussed the concept of remigration, which is the deportation immigrants, and opposes sending money to Ukraine. The party in Saxony-Anhalt also supports lifting sanctions against Russia.

Peter Altmaier, former Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy for the CDU, told CNBC that "Saxony-Anhalt is one of the smallest states, of course, and the German democracy is strong and resilient. But this is unprecedented, and it will be a matter of concern not only for us but also for our neighbors in Europe."

In turn, AfD's national co-leader Alice Weidel said the results were "sensational" and the party's hand is "outstretched to all who want to make Saxony-Anhalt better and move Germany forward."

Germany Elections