The candidate who led the far-right Alternative for Germany party to a historic victory in state elections in Germany thanked Elon Musk for his support, as a French minister warned this was a “serious moment” for Europe. The AfD more than doubled its support in the Saxony-Anhalt region and appears poised to become the first far-right party to win power in Germany at the state level since World War II. On Sunday evening, Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s leading candidate, thanked Musk in Siegmund wrote his comments after Musk said, “Well done!” in German to AfD co-founder Alice Weidel when she posted about the projected victory. Previously, US President Donald Trump posted a screenshot of the election screening without comment on his Truth Social site. Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev took a screenshot of Trump’s post and hailed a “historic victory for the pragmatic AfD.” AfD is pro-Kremlin, calls for stopping support for Ukraine and pushes for Ukrainians to no longer receive refugee status. Despite its resounding victory, the AfD failed to win a majority. The party sought an absolute majority in the state legislature to govern alone and overcome the so-called firewall of the main parties’ refusal to work with the AfD. Final results showed the AfD fell three seats short, with 39 lawmakers in an 83-member parliament. However, it is still unclear how and if the AfD will be able to form a government, having ruled out entering a coalition and having been rejected any form of cooperation by the main parties. AfD won 43.8% of the vote, more than double what it did five years ago in the region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin. That was well ahead of Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, which won 17.2% (losing about half its support) and won 15 seats. The center-left Social Democrats won 9.3%, the Greens 8.9% and the left-wing party 8.6%, winning eight seats each. The BSW party, which has said it would not elect Siegmund or incumbent Sven Schulze as governor but criticizes the “firewall” against the AfD, won 5.3% and five seats. French Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad described the victory as “a serious moment in Europe,” warning that “Nationalism and xenophobia will never be a solution.” “We must humbly listen to the anger, the concerns, the fears and respond to them,” he added. “We cannot forget our history. That is the meaning behind the decisions taken by France and Germany.” Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland, said: “In Poland, only idiots or traitors can rejoice in the victory of the AfD in Germany.” He said the AfD’s immigration policy would be “calamitous” for the state, which has an aging and declining population and relies heavily on foreign workers. Critics have also warned that an AfD-ruled state, due to the party’s pro-Kremlin stance, could leak sensitive information to Russia. The AfD has dismissed such claims. He has said he would seek to reform the national intelligence service, calling it biased.
