Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a historic election victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, securing 43.8 percent of the vote and more than doubling its 2021 result.
According to the preliminary result, the party won 39 of the state parliament's 83 seats, leaving it three short of an outright majority.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which had led the state government, fell to 17.2 percent, while turnout reached 77.8 percent, the highest recorded in a Saxony-Anhalt state election since German reunification.
Whether the AfD will be able to form a government remains uncertain. The CDU has ruled out a coalition with it, and the party cannot govern alone without support from other lawmakers.
Yet for many migrants and refugees in Magdeburg, the result already feels consequential.
The AfD's Saxony-Anhalt branch, which the state's domestic intelligence agency has classified as a confirmed right-wing extremist, campaigned on a sweeping programme of tighter immigration controls.
Its manifesto calls for a deportation task force, a dedicated "remigration" unit and commissioner, and the redirection of funds earmarked for integration guides to so-called remigration guides.
It also says an AfD-led state government would use the Bundesrat to seek the abolition of subsidiary protection for people fleeing wars and civil conflicts.
For people who have built jobs, families and futures in the state, the election was therefore about more than who would occupy seats in parliament.
Some could cast a ballot. Others, despite living and working in Saxony-Anhalt, watched a decision with direct consequences for their lives be made by those outside the electorate because they do not hold German citizenship.
Closing today so democracy remains open tomorrow
Eleven days before the election, migrant-run businesses across Magdeburg closed their doors for five hours as part of a protest against racism and exclusion.
Restaurants, grocery stores, barbershops and kiosks joined the action, while demonstrators gathered outside the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament.
Organisers said around 150 businesses had planned to participate.
Among them was Dawoud, a restaurant owner. For him, sacrificing part of a working day was intended as a warning about the years ahead.
"We are closing our businesses today so that the doors to a free democracy are not closed tomorrow," he told The New Arab at the demonstration. "This is not only about today. It is about tomorrow, because we have planned our lives and our future here."
Dawoud said the action was also about the families who live in Magdeburg and across the state, and their desire to remain part of a free and democratic society.
"We want to say clearly and openly that we stand against racism," he said. The strike made visible the economic role of migrant communities in the city.
On election night, however, the question was not only whether their absence from shops could be noticed, but whether their presence in the state was accepted at all.
[Somaya Abdelrahman]
A vote, but little sense of security
Mohammed Hussein, a Syrian-German childcare worker, has lived in Germany since 2015. He has built a career and family life in the country, and his child attends school in Saxony-Anhalt.
Unlike many of his friends, he was eligible to vote in the state election because of his German citizenship.
On Sunday evening, Mohammed stood with friends in Magdeburg and waited for the results. As the scale of the AfD's victory became clear, he said he felt no optimism about what would come next.
"During the recent election campaign, we saw fear and tension growing among the foreign communities here," he said. "The campaign was consistently negative towards refugees, and that will have a major effect on the city."
[Somaya Abdelrahman]
Mohammed fears that the political atmosphere could affect not only refugees' sense of safety but also workplaces, businesses and social and cultural activities. He said friends and members of migrant organisations had increasingly discussed leaving Magdeburg or Saxony-Anhalt.
For now, he has made no such decision.
"My family is here, I have my work here, and my child goes to school here," he said. "Leaving would be difficult. I will wait and see how we are treated. If I feel that we are no longer welcome, I will leave. A person cannot live under constant pressure."
After nearly 11 years in Germany, he described the future as newly uncertain. Leaving, he said, would not be a spontaneous act but a decision requiring extensive planning for a family whose life is already rooted in the country.
Living with the result, but without a vote
Hussein Ahmed, a Syrian refugee who works at a grocery store in Magdeburg, lives with protected status but does not hold German citizenship. He therefore had no vote in an election he believes could reshape how migrants are treated.
"I feel frustrated and broken because I do not have the right to vote," Hussein said. "I do not have a voice that I can make heard. If I had the right to vote, there are many things I would want to communicate."
He fears that an AfD-led government would bring sweeping changes to the system and greater pressure on migrants.
[Somaya Abdelrahman]
Although the party's election victory has not itself changed his residence status, its manifesto includes measures aimed at migrants and refugees, including a proposal to pursue the abolition of subsidiary protection through the Bundesrat.
"We came to Germany to build our future and our lives," Hussein added. "All we want is safety and security, and not to live with racism."
After the result, he said the future no longer appeared secure. If an AfD-led administration resulted in migrants being mistreated or denied their rights, Ahmed said he would leave Germany entirely.
For Ahmed and Mohammed Hussein, Germany had once seemed like the end of a long search for safety. Now, after both men built lives in the country under very different legal statuses, each says the future has become difficult to imagine.
'So now we will have to pack our bags'
The uncertainty is most immediate for a 26-year-old Kurdish Syrian from Kobani who works in a restaurant in Magdeburg. He arrived in Germany in 2024 and asked not to be named because of his precarious legal situation.
After leaving Syria, he said he felt as though he had been given a new life when he reached a country he believed was built on humanitarian and ethical principles.
Since arriving, he has tried to learn German and establish a future in the city while working in a restaurant.
But his asylum application has been rejected, and he has received a deportation warning, he said.
He is also receiving psychological treatment and said that prolonged uncertainty about his legal status has made it difficult to focus on rebuilding his life.
He was in Magdeburg when he learned the election result. His first words were: "So now we will have to pack our bags and leave."
He continued, "Since the result, I have felt even more anxious. I worry about my residence status, my work and whether my life here will become more difficult."
Sometimes, he added, a look or the way someone addresses him can make him feel like a burden on the region and that his presence is unwanted.
He stressed that not everyone treated him that way, but said such encounters felt heavier while he was already under psychological strain.
He has begun considering leaving Magdeburg for another German city where he might feel safer, but does not want to leave the country.
"I want to work and build my future here," he said. "But I also want to live somewhere I feel welcome, rather than seen as a burden on society."
As of Monday, the AfD had not formed a government, and the election result had not automatically altered any of the men's legal rights or residence documents.
But the scale of the party's victory had already changed how they imagined the future of the place they hoped would become home.
"We are not just numbers or asylum files," the young man said. "Behind every file is a human being with feelings, a family and a future."
Somaya Abdelrahman is an Egyptian documentary photographer and journalist based in Germany. Her work focuses on human rights, forced displacement, asylum, migration, and political issues