Supporters of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) wave German flags as they attend an election campaign rally ahead of state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in Neubrandenburg, Germany, on Sept. 18, 2026. —Sean Gallup—Getty ImagesAlternative for Germany (AfD) has won the most votes in northeastern Germany, marking the far right party’s second first-place result in state elections this year.The AfD won 38.2% of the votes in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on Sunday, according to preliminary official counts. It was followed by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) with 35.5%. The results add onto the AfD’s earlier success in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, bringing the party closer to regional power than any far-right party since WWII.“We are the strongest force and have reached the mainstream of the population,” AfD national co-leader Alice Weidel declared on Sunday.Sunday’s results were a significant blow to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the mainstream conservative party of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The CDU won just 4.9% of the vote in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, its lowest ever result in any state election and below the 5% threshold needed to enter state parliament.“We can’t sugarcoat the results,” Merz said after the first exit polls were released. “It’s a disaster.”Despite the AfD’s success, it faces an uncertain path to governance. Without an outright majority, the party would need support from lawmakers outside its ranks to govern, but mainstream political parties in Germany maintain a “firewall” against the AfD.Merz has also vowed to stay on and continue his reform agenda, bucking speculation that he might resign.AfD ran on anti-immigration, opposition to Ukraine aidIn Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, state party co-chairs Leif-Erik Holm and Enrico Schult, together with secretary general Dario Seifert, led the AfD’s campaign. Like the national party, the state organization ran on a hard-line anti-immigration platform, calling for more deportations, a state border and deportation police force, and potentially a statewide halt to accepting asylum seekers.The party also promised to stop further wind power development, lower property-transfer taxes, and reduce the size of the state administration. It also proposed withdrawing from the interstate broadcasting treaty as part of an effort to overhaul public broadcasters.Holm said his goal was an AfD-only state government, but he softened towards the end of the campaign and expressed openness to coalition discussions with any other party. But while CDU state leader Daniel Peters previously said there was effectively no longer a firewall against the AfD in eastern Germany, the SPD, Greens and Die Linke—the three other parties elected to the state parliament in Sunday’s election—have thus far rejected cooperation with the AfD.The SPD came second in the state after Manuela Schwesig, state premier since 2017, propelled the party to a late surge in polls. Schwesig cast herself as a bulwark to an AfD government, while also criticizing the federal government’s reform agenda.The CDU, alongside its sister party in Bavaria the Christian Social Union (CSU), is in a governing coalition with the SPD at the federal level.Asked by broadcaster ARD why around 45,000 former SPD voters had switched to the AfD, Schwesig cited dissatisfaction with the federal government and growing opposition to Germany’s financial and military support for Ukraine. She said the AfD had appealed to voters by campaigning to reopen the Nord Stream pipelines, which carried Russian gas ashore in the state.. The pipelines were damaged by explosions in September 2022, months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.CDU weakens but Merz vows to stay onMerz’s approval ratings have fallen sharply since he became chancellor in May 2025. As of early September, he polled at 13% approval, down from a peak of around 42% in July 2025.The CDU has fared little better. The CDU/CSU alliance has fallen in popularity from 30% support in July 2025 to 21% in early September.The party came second in Berlin’s election on Sunday with 18.8% of the vote share, down 9.4 percentage points from 2023, when it returned to power in the capital after more than two decades. It trailed Die Linke, a far-left party that has never before come first in a Berlin state election, with 25.7%. The AfD also made significant gains, increasing its vote share from 9.1% in 2023 to 16.3%, according to preliminary official resultsThe CDU more than halved its vote share in Saxony-Anhalt’s state election earlier this month, falling from 37.1% in 2021 to 17.2%. The AfD, on the other hand, more than doubled its support to 43.8%. The AfD has risen in popularity across the country, leading national opinion polls with nearly 30% support.But mainstream parties continue to rule out forming a coalition or otherwise cooperating with the AfD. Some branches of the AfD, including the one in Saxony-Anhalt, are designated as right-wing extremist organizations by domestic intelligence, a classification the party rejects.Earlier this week, the leaders of all eight CDU-governed states publicly backed Merz and called for party unity.On Sunday, Merz vowed to plow on with his reform agenda.“What needs to be done now requires backbone, steadfastness, and patience,” Merz said at CDU headquarters on Sunday. “I would go so far as to say that these reforms are the antidote to the authoritarian poison that is penetrating ever deeper into our society, driven by the allure of authoritarianism.”