MADRID (AP) — Valencia fans protested Sunday against club officials and players after a demoralizing 5-0 home loss to Barcelona in the Spanish league.
A few thousand fans gathered outside the Mestalla stadium and called players “mercenaries.” They also called for the club president, Kiat Lim, and team owner Peter Lim to “go home.”
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Valencia's goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski jumps to catch the ball to make a save during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valencia and Barcelona in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal celebrates with teammate Raphinha after scoring the opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valencia and Barcelona in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal celebrates after scoring a goal that was disallowed by VAR during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valencia and Barcelona in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
Valencia's head coach Carlos Corberan, second left, and players leave the field after their loss in the Spanish La Liga soccer match against Barcelona in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
Valencia's head coach Carlos Corberan, third left, and players leave the field after their loss in the Spanish La Liga soccer match against Barcelona in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
Some of the ultra fan groups left the stands empty at the start of the match. Players and coach Carlos Corberán were booed early on, and there were loud jeers at the final whistle as well.
Kiat Lim took over as president in 2025, but was attending a match at Mestalla for the first time, according to Spanish media.
It was Valencia's third straight defeat after opening the season with a draw. The team has scored only once in four matches.
There were no reports of violence during the protests.
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
Valencia's goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski jumps to catch the ball to make a save during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valencia and Barcelona in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal celebrates with teammate Raphinha after scoring the opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valencia and Barcelona in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal celebrates after scoring a goal that was disallowed by VAR during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valencia and Barcelona in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
Valencia's head coach Carlos Corberan, second left, and players leave the field after their loss in the Spanish La Liga soccer match against Barcelona in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
Valencia's head coach Carlos Corberan, third left, and players leave the field after their loss in the Spanish La Liga soccer match against Barcelona in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — The far-right Alternative for Germany party surged to a resounding victory in a regional election Sunday, but fell a little short of winning a majority in its quest to form the country’s first far-right state government since World War II.
The party of Germany’s unpopular leader, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, slumped to a disastrous result in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. The anti-migration and Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany’s candidate for governor said that “we have written history” and the party has a clear mandate to govern.
Ulrich Siegmund, 35, told public broadcaster ARD that voters had sent a signal that “things cannot carry on like this.” He said that “a very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz.”
Alternative for Germany, or AfD, was seeking an absolute majority in the state legislature to govern alone and overcome the so-called firewall of mainstream parties’ refusal to work with AfD.
Final results showed AfD falling three seats short, with 39 lawmakers in an 83-member parliament. Siegmund said it wouldn’t engage in “games” such as a minority government. But it wasn’t evident how its divided opponents could assemble any stable government without it.
A first state government would be the biggest prize in the anti-migration party’s 13-year history, at a time of widespread discontent with a national government that has yet to persuade voters that it can get the country’s sluggish economy moving.
Whether or not AfD ends up governing, the result is a blow to Merz, whose center-right party has led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years.
Unlike other countries in Europe, modern Germany hasn’t yet had a far-right or right-wing populist party leading a national, state or major-city government.
AfD is the biggest opposition party in Germany’s national parliament and is strongest in the formerly communist and less prosperous east, where Saxony-Anhalt is located.
Its regional branch in Saxony-Anhalt is one of several classified as a proven right-wing extremist group by the domestic intelligence agency, which points to members’ denigration of migrants from Muslim countries among other things.
The party talks of “remigration,” a politically charged term for the deportation of immigrants. Its leader in a neighboring state appealed two convictions for knowingly using a Nazi slogan.
AfD vehemently rejects accusations of extremism and says they’re politically motivated.
AfD won 43.8% of the vote, more than double its showing five years ago in the region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin.
That was far ahead of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, which polled 17.2% — losing about half its support — and won 15 seats. The center-left Social Democrats polled 9.3%, the Greens 8.9% and the Left Party 8.6%, winning eight seats apiece.
The BSW party, which has said it wouldn’t elect either Siegmund or incumbent Sven Schulze as governor but criticizes the “firewall” against AfD, took 5.3% and fives seats.
Turnout was very high at 77.8%. AfD appeared to have won over many people who didn’t vote at all five years ago.
AfD’s national co-leader, Alice Weidel, described the result as “sensational” and said that “we have received a very clear mandate to govern here.” The party’s “hand is outstretched to all who want to make Saxony-Anhalt better and move Germany forward,” she said. It may hope to attract defectors from other parties.
Schulze congratulated AfD on becoming the state’s strongest political force and said that “we as the CDU will also have to deal with this result,” without specifying how.
Franziska Hoppermann, the national general secretary of Merz’s party, rejected backing off its refusal to deal with AfD.
“AfD is a right-wing extremist party. It wants to leave the euro; that would be economic downfall ... it works closely together with Russia, it wants a completely different social model,” she said. “We will not work with them.”
Once previously AfD won a state election but didn’t end up governing. That was two years ago in neighboring Thuringia, where a CDU governor took power with a minority government, but AfD was much further short of a majority there.
Any attempt by Schulze to put together an alliance against AfD would be delicate because it would require at least some tacit support from the Left Party, a hard-left party with which the CDU refuses to form coalitions.
Germany’s 16 states have extensive powers, for example in overseeing security matters and running the education system.
Siegmund has listed among his top priorities “a deportation offensive” and dropping incentives for people to come to Germany and “exploit our social system.” He wants to initiate a long process to withdraw Saxony-Anhalt from the regional public broadcaster, citing concerns about “disinformation.”
AfD in Saxony-Anhalt wants to allow home schooling, which so far isn’t permitted in Germany. It pledges to ban schools from officially raising the rainbow flag and ensure they fly the national flag. It opposes taxpayers’ money being “given away” to Ukraine and says it would push to lift sanctions against Russia, but that isn’t a matter state governments can decide.
The 16 states’ governments also sit in Germany’s upper house of parliament, which has to approve some government legislation. The influence there of Saxony-Anhalt, one of the smaller states in a nation of 83.5 people, is limited — it controls four of the 69 votes.
Geir Moulson reported from Berlin.
After the projections for the state election in Saxony-Anhalt were released, members of various coalitions protested against the AfD on the Römer, holding a sign that read "Anti-social, fascist, stupid!!!", in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (Boris Roessler/dpa via AP)
Top candidate Ulrich Siegmund shows thumbs up beside party leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, from left, at an election party of the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) after the Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Party members celebrate with a sign of AfD top candidate Ulrich Siegmund after the first results at an election party of the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) after the Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Ulrich Siegmund, center, lead candidate and co-chair of the AfD state parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt, celebrates with Alice Weidel, federal chairwoman and co-chair of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, and Tino Chrupalla, federal chairman and co-chair of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, after the first results at an election party of the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) after the Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)
German Chancellor and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader Friedrich Merz, left, and Saxony-Anhalt State Governor and top candidate Sven Schulze give a press statement after visiting UPM Biochemicals in Leuna, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Ulrich Siegmund, top candidate for the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) party and his wife Julia leaving a polling station on a small Schwalbe motorcycle after voting during the Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Tangermuende, eastern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Ulrich Siegmund, top candidate for the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) party votes at a polling station during the Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Tangermuende, eastern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Sven Schulze, Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt and state chairman of the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt, drops his ballot into the ballot box during the Saxony-Anhalt state election, in Magdeburg, Germany, Sunday Sept. 6, 2026. At left is his wife Kati Schulze. (Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa via AP)
Ulrich Siegmund, top candidate for the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) party how's his motorcycle keys in party coolers after voting at a polling station during the Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Tangermuende, eastern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
