2021 Saxony-Anhalt state election

2021 Saxony-Anhalt state election

← 2016 6 June 2021 2026 →
All 97 seats in the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt (including 14 overhang and leveling seats) 49 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	1,079,045 (60.3%) 0.8%
First party Second party Third party   Candidate Reiner Haseloff Oliver Kirchner Eva von Angern Party CDU AfD Left Last election 30 seats, 29.8% 25 seats, 24.3% 16 seats, 16.3% Seats won 40 23 12 Seat change 10 2 4 Popular vote 394,810 221,487 116,927 Percentage 37.1% 20.8% 11.0% Swing 7.4% 3.4% 5.3%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Candidate Katja Pähle Lydia Hüskens Cornelia Lüddemann Party SPD FDP Greens Last election 11 seats, 10.6% 0 seats, 4.9% 5 seats, 5.2% Seats won 9 7 6 Seat change 2 7 1 Popular vote 89,475 68,277 63,145 Percentage 8.4% 6.4% 5.9% Swing 2.2% 1.6% 0.8%
Results for the single-member constituencies
Government before election Second Haseloff cabinet CDU–SPD–Green Government after election Third Haseloff cabinet CDU–SPD–FDP

The 2021 Saxony-Anhalt state election was held on 6 June 2021 to elect the 8th Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt.^[1] The outgoing government was coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Social Democratic Party (SPD), and The Greens, led by Minister-President Reiner Haseloff.

The CDU won an unexpectedly strong 37.1% of votes, an increase of 7.4 percentage points. The opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) finished on 20.8%, a decline of 3.4 percentage points. The Left and SPD each suffered their worst ever results in the state, recording 11.0% and 8.4% respectively. The Free Democratic Party (FDP), which narrowly failed to re-enter the Landtag in 2016, won 6.4% of votes and 7 seats. The Greens finished on an unexpectedly low 5.9%, only a slight improvement from their previous result.^[2][3]

Going in to the election, the CDU trailed the AfD in some polls, with most others showing a neck-to-neck race, with the CDU sitting at around 30 % support. The unexpected CDU sweep – improving their 2016 result and winning a plurality in every district of the state, though they narrowly lost the Zeitz constituency – was largely attributed to the personal popularity of long-time Minister-President Haseloff, who, at the time, was the Minister-President with the highest favorability ratings. This allowed him to carry the CDU to victory against the poor showing in the polls of the federal CDU, largely resulting from developments in their campaign in the then-upcoming federal election. The AfDs leader Oliver Kirchner on the other hand was barely known to the public, with polls showing he would garner single-digit support if the Minister-President was elected directly.

On 6 July, the CDU, SPD, and FDP began coalition negotiations. The three parties presented a draft coalition agreement on 9 August,^[4] which was later approved by each party's membership. Haseloff was re-elected Minister-President on 16 September on the second ballot in the Landtag.^[5]

The coalition, dubbed "Germany coalition" due to the coalition parties colors, was übergroß, since the CDU and SPD alone would have held a single-seat majority in the Landtag. The last übergroß coalition, popular in times of crises, for example in West Berlin in the post-WWII years, was formed in Hamburg in 1970. The gamble paid off,^{[clarification needed]} since the Landtag didn't elect Haseloff on the first ballot, which some commentators attributed to right-wing dissent within the CDU faction.