US President Donald Trump has congratulated the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) on its State election win in Saxony-Anhalt, eastern Germany, saying the party was on the rise.
“Wow! The Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on September 8. He did not name the AfD, though the reference was clear.
In the same post he said German voters had finally grown tired of immigration rules and regulations that had done the country great harm. He added that the party would not put up with the situation any longer.
Trump closed the message with “MGGA”, an apparent rendering of Make Germany Great Again and a play on his own Make America Great Again slogan. On election night he had posted a screenshot of German television projections showing the AfD in front, without adding any comment.
The party took 43.8 per cent in the September 6 State election, more than double the 20.8 per cent it won in 2021 and the best result in its history. That gave it 39 of the 83 seats in the Magdeburg Landtag, three short of a majority.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Minister-President Sven Schulze fell to 17.2 per cent from 37.1 per cent, its weakest showing in a State it has governed since 2002. Turnout reached 77.8 per cent, the highest recorded in Saxony-Anhalt since 1989, according to preliminary official results.
The message came two days after a wave of congratulations from sovereigntist leaders across Europe.
The State branch of the AfD has been classified as a confirmed right-wing extremist organisation by the regional Office for the Protection of the Constitution since 2023. The office argued that the party attacked core principles of the free democratic order, in particular the guarantee of human dignity set out in the Basic Law.
The AfD is appealing that designation and the process is currently suspended. A separate ruling by the Cologne Administrative Court in February suspended a similar classification applied to the party nationally by the federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in 2025.
An AfD-led State government would be the first in the history of the Federal Republic. The party won the Thuringia State election in 2024 but did not take office.
It would also need a partner in Magdeburg. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which entered the State parliament with five seats, is the only party not to have ruled out working with it.
