AfD supporters at a campaign for Ulrich Siegmund, leader of the party in Saxony-Anhalt. ‘Das Land Retten’ is German for ‘Save the Country’. Photograph: Annegret Hilse/Reuters View image in fullscreen AfD supporters at a campaign for Ulrich Siegmund, leader of the party in Saxony-Anhalt. ‘Das Land Retten’ is German for ‘Save the Country’. Photograph: Annegret Hilse/Reuters Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) Explainer All eyes on Saxony-Anhalt – what will AfD do if it wins German state poll? Sunday’s election could bring in Germany’s first far-right state government since the Nazi era
Prefer the Guardian on Google Germany is embarking on a crucial election period this month, with three key state polls that could markedly change the political terrain and make life decidedly harder for the federal government under the chancellor, Friedrich Merz .
All eyes are on Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, where about 1.7 million people are eligible to vote, followed by Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin on 20 September. In all three contests, the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is expected to make strong gains.
Founded in 2013 as an anti-euro force but later morphing into an anti-immigrant party, the AfD has harnessed and amplified the frustrations of voters aggrieved and vexed by economic stagnation, rising immigration and cultural shifts.
Read more Latest polls have put it at around 40-42% in the state, placing its ambition to achieve its first absolute majority at state level within reach. Securing power in the state would mark a first for the far-right since the second world war.
This matters for the whole country. State governments in Germany are represented in the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, so have broad powers over education, culture and domestic security.
For the chancellor, the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), an AfD takeover in the state could be the biggest disaster yet of a term already marked by seemingly relentless setbacks .
View image in fullscreen An AfD win in Saxony-Anhalt would be disastrous for Friedrich Merz. Photograph: Clemens Bilan/EPA The AfD’s leadership see their potential to gain power at state level as a natural springboard to electoral success at the next federal election in 2029. Currently the party is the main opposition in the Bundestag.
The populists’ main obstacle is the stubborn resistance of other parties to collude with them, referred to as the Brandmauer , or firewall. However, this approach would be null and void if the AfD wins an absolute majority.
On migration and identity, it has vowed to start deporting “irregular migrants” from “the first minute” and to foster patriotism by replacing the state’s current promotional slogan, “Think Modern”, with “Think German”.
Read more Cultural offerings deemed anti-German would be subject to a clampdown and funding to public broadcasters it views as “leftwing propaganda lackeys” would be drastically cut.
In the education sector, German flags would replace rainbow flags in schools, students would sing the national anthem, and the children of asylum seekers would be educated in separate classes.
Home schooling – long banned as a reaction to the Nazi era – would be allowed again, and the history curriculum would be changed to move away from what the AfD sees as an excessive focus on the Nazi era.
Russian teaching would be expanded and programmes focused on combating rightwing extremism would be axed.…