2019 Saxony state election

The 2019 Saxony state election was held on 1 September 2019 to elect the members of the 7th Landtag of Saxony. The incumbent grand coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Minister-President Michael Kretschmer was defeated, losing its majority.[1] The CDU subsequently formed a "Kenya coalition" with The Greens and the SPD, and Kretschmer was re-elected as Minister-President.[2]

2019 Saxony state election

1 September 2019
All 119 seats in the Landtag of Saxony 60 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	2,166,457 (66.5%) 17.4%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Michael Kretschmer Jörg Urban Rico Gebhardt Party CDU AfD Left Last election 59 seats, 39.4% 14 seats, 9.7% 27 seats, 18.9% Seats won 45 38 14 Seat change 14 24 13 Popular vote 695,560 595,671 224,354 Percentage 32.1% 27.5% 10.4% Swing 7.3% 17.7% 8.5%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Katja Meier & Wolfram Günther Martin Dulig Party Green SPD Last election 8 seats, 5.7% 18 seats, 12.4% Seats won 12 10 Seat change 4 8 Popular vote 187,015 167,289 Percentage 8.6% 7.7% Swing 2.9% 4.6%
Results for the direct mandates.
Minister-President before election Michael Kretschmer CDU Elected Minister-President Michael Kretschmer CDU

Background

In the 2014 state election, the CDU entered into coalition with the SPD. Since then, Saxony emerged as a stronghold of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which achieved its best results in Saxony in national elections since. It won narrow pluralities in the state in both the 2017 federal election, winning 27.0%, and the 2019 European elections, winning 25.3%.[3]

In May 2019, the Saxon electoral commission ruled that two-thirds of AfD's candidate list was invalid due to the party's decision to split them across two lists.[4] However, in July, a court partially overturned this decision, ruling half of the party's list eligible.[5]

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 6th Landtag of Saxony.

Name			Ideology	Leader(s)	2014 result
					Votes (%)	Seats
	CDU	Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands	Christian democracy	Michael Kretschmer	39.4%	59 / 126
	Linke	The Left Die Linke	Democratic socialism	Rico Gebhardt	18.9%	27 / 126
	SPD	Social Democratic Party of Germany Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands	Social democracy	Martin Dulig	12.4%	18 / 126
	AfD	Alternative for Germany Alternative für Deutschland	National conservatism	Jörg Urban	9.7%	14 / 126
	Grüne	Alliance 90/The Greens Bündnis 90/Die Grünen	Green politics	Katja Meier Wolfram Günther	5.7%	8 / 126

Opinion polling

Graphical summary

Party polling

Polling firm	Fieldwork date	Sample size	CDU	Linke	SPD	AfD	Grüne	NPD	FDP	Others	Lead
2019 state election	1 Sep 2019	–	32.1	10.4	7.7	27.5	8.6	0.6	4.5	8.6	4.6
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen	26–29 Aug 2019	1,657	32	14	8.5	24.5	11	–	5	5	7.5
Civey	4–28 Aug 2019	5,015	29.0	15.0	8.9	24.9	10.9	–	5.7	5.6	4.1
INSA	19–26 Aug 2019	1,018	29	15	8	25	11	–	5	7	4
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen	19–22 Aug 2019	1,068	31	14	9	25	10	–	5	6	6
Infratest dimap	19–21 Aug 2019	1,002	30	16	7	24	11	–	5	7	6
Civey	23 Jul–20 Aug 2019	5,016	28.0	15.0	8.5	25.2	11.4	–	5.5	6.4	2.8
FB Czaplicki	8–15 Aug 2019	700	28.0	16.0	8.0	26.0	13.0	–	5.0	4.0	2
INSA	22–31 Jul 2019	1,011	28	16	8	25	12	–	5	6	3
Civey	27 Jun–25 Jul 2019	5,019	27.1	15.0	8.7	25.4	10.8	–	5.6	7.4	1.7
Infratest dimap	24–29 Jun 2019	1,000	26	15	9	26	12	–	5	7	Tie
Civey	15 May–12 Jun 2019	5,001	29.7	16.6	10.3	23.5	10.6	–	4.6	4.7	6.2
INSA	4–11 Jun 2019	1,057	24	16	7	25	16	–	6	6	1
FB Czaplicki	29 May–4 Jun 2019	703	24	15	8	24	14	–	6	9	Tie
2019 European election	26 May 2019	–	23.0	11.7	8.6	25.3	10.3	0.8	4.7	15.6	2.3
INSA	17–24 Apr 2019	1,000	28	16	10	26	9	–	6	5	2
Civey	19 Mar–16 Apr 2019	3,852	29.4	17.4	11.6	20.8	9.9	–	6.1	4.8	8.6
INSA	7–18 Mar 2019	1,028	28	17	9	25	9	–	6	6	3
FB Czaplicki	4–13 Mar 2019	703	27	17	11	18	16	–	5	6	9
INSA	10–17 Dec 2018	1,000	29	18	10	25	9	–	6	3	4
IM Field	2–14 Nov 2018	1,002	29	17	11	24	8	–	6	5	5
INSA	27–30 Aug 2018	1,040	28	18	11	25	7	–	7	4	3
uniQma	20–28 Aug 2018	703	28.9	18.6	11.4	23.9	6.8	–	5.6	4.5	5.0
Infratest dimap	20–25 Aug 2018	1,000	30	18	11	25	6	–	5	5	5
INSA	4–11 Jun 2018	1,009	32	19	9	24	6	–	6	4	8
IM Field	16 Nov–2 Dec 2017	1,000	33	18	12	23	4	–	7	3	10
IM Field	23–26 Oct 2017	1,005	31	17	14	21	4	–	7	5	10
2017 federal election	24 Sep 2017	–	26.9	16.1	10.5	27.0	4.6	1.1	8.2	5.6	0.2
Infratest dimap	12–17 Jun 2017	1,000	41	15	10	21	4	–	5	4	20
Infratest dimap	15–19 Nov 2016	1,002	34	16	12	25	7	–	–	6	9
INSA	19–23 Sep 2016	1,003	37.5	16	13	21.5	6	1.5	2	2.5	16
Infratest dimap	9–14 Sep 2015	1,001	38	17	13	13	7	5	3	4	21
2014 state election	31 Aug 2014	–	39.4	18.9	12.4	9.7	5.7	4.9	3.8	5.1	20.5

Election result

Summary of the 1 September 2019 election results[6] for the Landtag of Saxony

Party		Ideology	Votes	Votes % (change)		Seats (change)		Seats %
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	Christian democracy	695,560	32.1%	−7.3pp	45	−14	37.8%
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	German nationalism	595,671	27.5%	+17.7pp	38	+24	31.9%
	The Left (Die Linke)	Democratic socialism	224,354	10.4%	−8.5pp	14	−13	11.8%
	Alliance '90/The Greens (Grünen)	Green politics	187,015	8.6%	+2.9pp	12	+4	10.1%
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	Social democracy	167,289	7.7%	−4.6pp	10	−8	8.4%
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	Liberalism	97,438	4.5%	+0.7pp	0	±0	0%
	Free Voters	Direct democracy	72,897	3.4%	+1.8pp	0	±0	0%
	Others		126,233	5.8%	−2.7pp	0	±0	0%
Total			2,166,457	100.0%		119	−7	100.0%
Blank and invalid votes			22,029	1.02
Registered voters / turnout			3,288,643	66.5

AfD received its highest share of the vote in any state or federal election, while the CDU and The Left both fell to record lows in Saxony. Under normal circumstances AfD should have received 39 seats in the Landtag; however, due to positions 31–61 being ruled invalid and removed from AfD's party list, they had no candidates to fill the final seat. Thus, it remains vacant and there are only 119 seats in the Landtag, one fewer than the standard minimum size.

Government formation

Incumbent Minister-President Michael Kretschmer was considered likely to retain his job, as his party remains the largest in the Landtag. Kretschmer ruled out working with AfD or leading a minority government during the campaign. As the CDU also rejects working with The Left, this leaves a so-called "Kenya coalition" as the only viable option: a coalition of the CDU, Greens, and SPD. Such a coalition has governed Saxony-Anhalt since the 2016 state election.[7] Kretschmer and Green leaders Meier and Günther publicly supported exploratory discussions in the week following the election, and the Greens scheduled a party vote on opening negotiations for 12 October.[8]

On 20 December, the coalition between the CDU, Greens, and SPD was approved by the Landtag and sworn into government, with Kretschmer remaining as Minister-President.[2]

References

1. "Umfrage-Beben in Sachsen: AfD auf Augenhöhe mit der CDU". merkur.de (in German). 2019-04-27. Retrieved 2019-05-05.
2. "Sachsens Kenia-Regierung ist besiegelt". MDR.de. 20 December 2019.
3. https://www.dw.com/en/eu-election-afd-surge-in-eastern-germany-sets-up-clash-of-cultures/a-48909859
4. https://www.politico.eu/article/afd-in-regional-election-administrative-oversight/
5. https://www.politico.eu/article/german-court-partially-overturns-restrictions-on-far-right-afd-election-list/
7. Anzlinger, Jana (2 September 2019). "Landtagswahl: Diese Koalitionen sind möglich". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German).
8. "CDU-Landeschef in Sachsen: Kretschmer für Kenia-Koalition". ZDF (in German).