Saxony-Anhalt handed the AfD around 44% of the vote. Chancellor Friedrich Merz called his own CDU 'deeply shocked' by the outcome, per Modern Ghana.

NRW premier Henrik Wüst is the first senior CDU figure to publicly float a Verbotsverfahren — a formal proceeding to ban the AfD — a move Welt reports is opening a fresh rift inside Merz's government. Germany's domestic intelligence service is growing warier, with an official advising against handing the AfD sensitive information, per Tagesschau's liveblog. The AfD is presenting itself as ready to govern while also preparing for a scenario in which a ban effort fails and it stays locked out of power anyway, according to FAZ. It has also claimed quiet backing from lawmakers inside Merz's own CDU, according to Firstpost — a claim that, if true, would mean the CDU's 'firewall' against the far right is already leaking from the inside.

None of this is staying inside Germany. Le Monde says the result weakens Merz, Euronews asks whether he is becoming 'the sick man of Germany', and Business Insider Africa reports from Lagos on African migrants unsettled by the AfD's showing.

Hypothesis: foreign outlets are covering a state election because they read it as a preview of whether Germany's mainstream parties can still contain the AfD nationally. Supporting this: coverage spans France, pan-European outlets and African press, not just German media. Against this: Saxony-Anhalt is one eastern state where the AfD was already strong, and a single result doesn't settle whether the 'firewall' holds at federal level.

What to watch: whether Wüst's ban proposal gains ground within the CDU, and whether the intelligence service's new caution toward the AfD marks a broader shift in how Berlin treats the party.