Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany party won a landslide victory in Sunday's state election in Saxony-Anhalt, taking 43.8 percent of the vote in the strongest showing by a far-right party in German regional politics since the Nazi era, according to final results confirmed Monday.

The AfD more than doubled the vote share of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union, which collapsed to 17.2 percent after governing the eastern state for 24 years. The Social Democrats took 9.3 percent, the Greens 8.9 percent, the Left Party 8.6 percent and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance 5.3 percent, on turnout of 77.8 percent.

The result hands the AfD 39 of 83 seats in the Magdeburg state parliament — just three short of an outright majority — but leaves no clear path to power, since every other party has ruled out governing with it. Germany's domestic intelligence service classifies the state AfD branch as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization.

"WE HAVE WRITTEN HISTORY." — Ulrich Siegmund, AfD's lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt

Merz calls it the CDU's worst defeat in decades

Speaking in Berlin, Merz told reporters his party was "deeply shocked" by the scale of the loss. "We did not expect it to turn out like this. We must, of course, accept it," he said. "This is the hardest defeat that the CDU has had for decades. Of course, this is going to have consequences."

An ARD poll found 87 percent of Saxony-Anhalt voters were dissatisfied with Merz's federal coalition government, underscoring how the vote functioned as a referendum on national politics as much as state issues such as immigration and the region's economy. AfD national co-chair Alice Weidel called the outcome "sensational," while the party's chief rival, the CDU, moved quickly to shut down any talk of cooperation. "We will not work with them," CDU general secretary Franziska Hoppermann said.

Analysts at Eurasia Group described it as potentially the "most consequential German state-election result of the postwar era," and the result is already sending shockwaves through European capitals watching the AfD's prospects nationally, with the party currently polling at or near the top of national surveys ahead of further state contests later this month.

With no coalition partner willing to join it, the AfD is expected to sit in opposition despite its historic vote share, leaving Saxony-Anhalt facing prolonged negotiations among the CDU, SPD, Greens and Left Party to cobble together a governing majority. Siegmund said the party would not play minority-government "games," signaling it intends to use its parliamentary weight to pressure the eventual coalition from outside.

The fallout is expected to reverberate through Merz's fragile federal coalition in Berlin, where his CDU-SPD government has struggled with sinking approval ratings over the economy and migration policy. Further tests loom, with elections in other German states scheduled in the coming weeks that will show whether Sunday's result was a one-off protest vote or the start of a broader realignment in German politics.