2019 Saxony state election

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]

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

Party		Constituency				Party list				Total seats	+/-	Seats %
		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	Votes	%	+/-	Seats
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	703,006	32.5	7.2	41	695,560	32.1	7.3	4	45	14	37.8
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	613,585	28.4	22.0	15	595,671	27.5	17.7	23	38	24	31.9
	The Left (Die Linke)	265,871	12.3	8.7	1	224,354	10.4	8.5	13	14	13	11.8
	Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)	192,489	8.9	2.6	3	187,015	8.6	2.9	9	12	4	10.1
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	166,920	7.7	5.5	0	167,289	7.7	4.6	10	10	8	8.4
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	100,639	4.7	0.6	0	97,438	4.5	0.7	0	0	±0	0
	Free Voters (FW)	98,353	4.6	2.6	0	72,897	3.4	1.8	0	0	±0	0
	Die PARTEI (PARTEI)	12,557	0.6	0.4	0	33,618	1.6	0.9	0	0	±0	0
	Human Environment Animal Protection (Tierschutz)	–	–	0.0	–	33,476	1.5	0.4	0	0	±0	0
	National Democratic Party (NPD)	–	–	0.0	–	12,947	0.6	4.3	0	0	±0	0
	Partei für Gesundheitsforschung	–	–	New	–	11,652	0.5	New	0	0	New	0
	Blaue #TeamPetry Thüringen	1,508	0.1	New	0	7,806	0.4	New	0	0	New	0
	Pirate Party Germany (Piraten)	–	–	1.6	–	6,632	0.3	0.8	0	0	±0	0
	Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP)	–	–		–	6,000	0.3	0.3	0	0	±0	0
	Party of Humanists (Humanisten)	–	–	New	–	4,305	0.2	New	0	0	New	0
	Dawn of German Patriots – Middle Germany (ADPM)	–	–	New	–	3,948	0.2	New	0	0	New	0
	Party of Reason (PDV)	–	–		–	2,268	0.1	0.1	0	0	±0	0
	Communist Party of Germany (KPD)	–	–		–	1,951	0.1	0.1	0	0	±0	0
	Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität (BüSo)	–	–	0.4	–	1,630	0.1	0.1	0	0	±0	0
	Other	2,732	0.1		0	–	–	–	–	0	±0	0
Valid votes		2,159,850	98.7			2,166,457	99.0
Blank and invalid votes		28,636	1.3			22,029	1.0
Total		2,188,486	100.0		60	2,188,486	100.0		59	119	7
Electorate/voter turnout		3,288,643	66.5	17.4		3,288,643	66.5	17.4
Source: Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaates Sachsen

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.

Incumbent Minister-President Michael Kretschmer was considered likely to retain his job, as his party remained 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.[6] 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.[7]

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]