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 and Social Democratic Party led by Minister-President Michael Kretschmer was defeated, losing its majority. The CDU subsequently formed a "Kenya coalition" with The Greens and the SPD, and Kretschmer was re-elected as Minister-President.

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, 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%.
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. However, in July, a court partially overturned this decision, ruling half of the party's list eligible.

Parties

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

Opinion polling

Graphical summary

Party polling

Election result

Summary of the 1 September 2019 election results for the Landtag of Saxony
! colspan="2" | Party
! Ideology
! Votes
! colspan="2" | Votes %
! colspan="2" | Seats
! Seats %
! colspan=9|
! align="right" colspan=2| Total
! align="right" |
! align="right" | 2,166,457
! align="right" | 100.0%
! align="right" |
! align="right" | 119
! align="right" |
! align="right" | 100.0%
! align="right" colspan=2| Blank and invalid votes
! align="right" |
! align="right" | 22,029
! align="right" | 1.02
! align="right" |
! align="right" |
! align="right" |
! align="right" |
! align="right" colspan=2| Registered voters / turnout
! align="right" |
! align="right" | 3,288,643
! align="right" | 66.5
! align="right" |
! align="right" |
! align="right" |
! align="right" |

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. 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.
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.