00:01German voters headed to the polls on Sunday for a crucial regional election in Saxony-Anhalt,
00:07where the state's far-right anti-immigration AfD party is expected to win easily.
00:13Polling at over 40 percent for months, Alternative for Germany has its sights on winning its first
00:19ever state government. All other major parties have so far maintained a firewall of non-cooperation
00:25with the AfD, whose Saxony-Anhalt branch is categorized as right-wing extremist by Germany's
00:31domestic intelligence agency. A large AfD victory would pile more pressure onto German Chancellor
00:38Friedrich Merz and his increasingly unpopular coalition. AfD candidate Ulrich Sigmund has
00:44announced that he would only govern if his party won an absolute majority. Whether the AfD manages
00:51to secure an outright majority of seats in the state parliament in Magdeburg will depend
00:55on how the smaller parties perform. The more parties that cross the 5 percent threshold and
01:01enter the state parliament, the smaller the AfD's chances become of an absolute majority of MPs.
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