BERLIN (AP) — Lawmakers in an eastern German state elected a new governor on Wednesday as mainstream parties try to prevent a victory for the far-right Alternative for Germany in a regional election that is only seven months away.

The state legislature in Saxony-Anhalt elected Sven Schulze, a member of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union, to replace long-serving incumbent Reiner Haseloff.

Haseloff, 71, has led the state of some 2.2 million people since 2011. Schulze, 46, was designated last year as the CDU’s candidate for governor to succeed him in a state election on Sept. 6.

Although it’s quite common in Germany for governors to hand over the reins in midterm to allow their successors a chance to become better-known to voters, Haseloff originally appeared minded to serve out his term. But with regional support very high for Alternative for Germany, or AfD, he announced this month that he would step down early.

AfD, which became the second-biggest party in Germany’s federal parliament in a national election last year, is at its strongest in the formerly communist and less prosperous east. Opposition to migration is the signature issue of AfD, with which mainstream parties refuse to work. But it also has shown a talent for capitalizing on discontent with other issues, such as the country’s sluggish economy.

In recent years, some sitting governors in the east — including Haseloff himself in the state’s last election in 2021 — have managed to beat back challenges from AfD as relatively popular incumbents. Schulze, who was Saxony-Anhalt’s economy minister until now, would have lacked that potential advantage if Haseloff had stayed in office.

AfD so far has emerged as the biggest party in one state election, in the neighboring eastern region of Thuringia in 2024, but it has yet to take power at state level.