Usagevpn.com – More than 1.7 million registered voters in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt walked into polling stations on Sunday morning, opening a day of voting that carries implications far beyond the state capital of Magdeburg. The regional election, with polls closing at 6 pm local time, is widely regarded as a referendum on Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s federal government and the direction of his centre-right coalition. For Merz, whose approval ratings have been sliding since taking office, the result will either provide a much-needed stabilising signal or deepen the crisis gripping his cabinet.

The stakes are sharpened by the fact that Saxony-Anhalt, a state of roughly 2.2 million people in the former East Germany, has historically voted centre-right but has seen growing appetite for alternatives to the traditional party system. A decisive result here would ripple through the other 15 Länder and into the Bundestag, where coalition arithmetic already…