CDU Defectors Enable AfD State Takeover

In Sachsen‑Anhalt four CDU parliamentarians voted with the AfD to elect the chamber president, producing a larger majority than the AfD+BSW alliance alone and signaling that CDU defections can be the tipping point for putting the AfD into state government. That local vote is already being framed by participants as a prelude to electing an AfD Minister‑President, and it may violate federal coalition understandings that conditioned cooperation on keeping the AfD out of power. — If center‑right defections become a pattern, states can normalize governing with the far‑right, destabilizing national coalitions and changing what parties consider politically acceptable.