AfD Nears First Far-Right German State Win
AfD Nears First Far-Right German State Win
The News
Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany party is polling above 40% in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt ahead of a state election next Sunday, putting it within reach of the first far-right governing majority in a German state since World War II.
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel used a weekend appearance to tell Germans to "stand up" and "fight for this democracy," according to Deutsche Welle.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that an AfD win would damage the state economically and drive off foreign investors, Bloomberg and Reuters reported.
What the AfD Is Promising
The party's Saxony-Anhalt manifesto proposes separate schools for refugee children, a nationalist school curriculum, and policies tied to what it calls the "normal family," according to Deutsche Welle.
The AfD has also pledged what it calls a "deportation and remigration offensive." Japan Times reported that migrants in the state are already preparing to leave, describing the party as anti-immigration, Islamophobic and friendly toward Russia.
Timeline
The AfD finishes well behind the Christian Democrats in the last Saxony-Anhalt state election. Its support in the state has since roughly doubled, while CDU support has fallen by nearly 15 percentage points, per Wire's source reporting.
Merkel weighs in on the Saxony-Anhalt race, urging voters to defend democracy and describing the AfD's rise as "a pan-German phenomenon" rather than an eastern one, Deutsche Welle reported.
Merz says publicly that an AfD victory would put off investors and cause "problems" for the state, Reuters and Bloomberg report. The same day, Deutsche Welle reports that Catholic and Protestant church representatives in Saxony-Anhalt are openly campaigning against the party after what they describe as a confrontational course by the AfD toward the churches.
Saxony-Anhalt voters go to the polls.
Reactions
Merkel, a Christian Democrat who led Germany for 16 years, framed the election as a test of the country's democratic nerve and rejected the idea that the AfD surge is confined to the former East.
Merz, the sitting chancellor and Merkel's fellow Christian Democrat, made the economic argument instead, warning that investors would steer clear of a state run by the AfD.
Church leaders in the state told Deutsche Welle they are responding with a mix of anxiety and resolve.
The Guardian's editorial board argued that mainstream parties have not answered the AfD's rise seriously enough and need a bolder economic approach rather than warnings alone.
What's Next
The vote next Sunday will decide whether the AfD wins an outright governing majority — which would hand it control of the state's schools, police and cultural institutions.
The bigger open question is the "firewall": mainstream German parties have refused for years to govern with the AfD, and a majority in Saxony-Anhalt would test whether that holds.
Why It Matters to Americans
Germany is Europe's largest economy and a central NATO member. A far-right state government there, running on mass deportations and a friendlier line toward Moscow, would be the clearest sign yet that the immigration backlash reshaping Western politics has broken through Germany's postwar taboo.
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