Something gave way in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6. The AfD had been advancing for years; on September 6, it ceased to look like an insurgency and began to look like the dominant political force of an entire German state. On that day, the Alternative für Deutschland won 43.8 per cent of the vote, more than doubling its result from 2021 and reducing the once-dominant Christian Democratic Union – the classic Catholic voter’s choice – to 17.2 per cent. The AfD emerged with 39 of the new Landtag’s 83 seats; the CDU with 15. Turnout reached 77.8 per cent, the highest since the state was reconstituted after German reunification. Across great stretches of this predominantly rural eastern state, blue replaced black on the electoral map.