Germany’s AfD has claimed a historic 44% vote share in Saxony-Anhalt’s regional election, putting it on the brink of becoming the first hard-Right party to govern a German state since the Second World War. Mainstream parties’ longstanding ‘firewall’ policy of refusing to work with the AfD appears to have been decisively rejected by voters. The Mail has the story:
Germany’s biggest hard-Right party is set for an ‘historic’ victory in a key regional election, exit polls show.
Alternative for Germany (AfD) took at least 44% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt in the ex-communist east, according to exit polls published by broadcasters ARD and ZDF.
The anti-immigration and Moscow-friendly party is now on the brink of becoming the first hard-Right party to run a state government in Germany since the Second World War.
“We have made history today,” said a jubilant Ulrich Siegmund, the 35-year-old lead candidate for AfD in Saxony-Anhalt.
The result was seen as a stinging rebuke for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose centre-Right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) finished far behind AfD on 18%. The centre-Left Social Democrats and environmental Greens both cleared the minimum threshold to enter state parliament with around 8 to 9% each.
However, it remains far from clear who will eventually rule in the small state of 2.1 million people. The AfD had hoped to garner enough votes for the absolute majority which would allow it to govern a state alone for the first time, but is instead on course to take just less than half of parliamentary seats available.
The CDU had hoped to cobble together a multi-party coalition to cling to power, but would still lack a majority even if it teamed up with the centre-left SPD, Greens and the far-Left Die Linke.
The AfD meanwhile may hope to win the support of the small pro-Russian BSW party – a leftist group that is tough on immigration, and which was expected to just scrape into parliament with five percent.
Alice Weidel, the AfD’s national co-leader, praised the party’s result as “sensational” and said the party had “received a very clear mandate to govern here”.
But until now the AfD has faced a policy of Brandmauer – which translates as ‘firewall’ – meaning other mainstream German parties have refused to negotiate with or go into coalition with them.
But the results of Sunday’s election show that mainstream parties’ longstanding policy of refusing co-operation with the AfD has been rejected by voters, the party’s other national co-leader Tino Chrupalla claimed.
Those parties “were voted out – or rather, the voters delivered a clear verdict – and I can only encourage them to recognise that the “firewall” has been definitively rejected by the voters today,” Chrupalla, referring to the policy, told broadcaster ARD.
“It was the others who erected the firewalls,” Mr Siegmund told German newspaper Bild before the results began to funnel through. “If no one wants to work with us, then we’ll just have to do it alone.”
Mr Siegmund has ambitions to become state premier and lead a political revolution from Saxony-Anhalt that would propel the party to national victory in 2029.
Dubbed “Germany’s most dangerous man” by a news magazine Der Spiegel, Mr Siegmund mocked the publication by handing out signed copies to his fans.
In recent months, the hard-Right leader – a former entrepreneur – has been mobbed by adoring supporters at ‘family picnics’ and campaign events across the small state.
The party has tapped into a sense of nostalgia for communist East Germany as well as lingering resentment about an enduring wealth gap with the west decades after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
Tapping in to the defiant sense of local ‘Ossie pride’ – Ossie being a colloquial term for people from the former East Germany – Mr Siegmund has been frequently pictured riding a vintage Simson scooter, including to the polling booth Sunday in his hometown of Tangermuende.
Worth reading in full.
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I find it confusing that AfD is labelled far right when Germany’s Nazis in the 1930s and early 40s were National socialists. Additionally AfD is sympathetic to communist Russia
AfD were founded as an anti euro party when it replaced the Deutschmark and were not anti-EU. Since then so much of the EU policies have been instrumental in destroying Germany’s industrial base that they have naturally moved to opposing it by wanting the best for Germany.
Hard Right – what? Come on DS you’re falling into the same trap as the MSM. They are more like the common sense party. All they want is to claim back their ancestral homeland which is being taken away from them by dishonest globalist politicians. It’s the same here obviously as the previous article on illegals confirms.
Disappointed that Toby has followed the hive mind mentality by using the ‘hard right’ moniker.
I am getting very tired of the ‘far right’-labelling.
So I asked ChatGPT for AFDs 10 main
policies.
Much stricter immigration and asylum policy. The AfD advocates permanent/strong border controls, rejecting unauthorized entrants at Germany’s borders, processing asylum applications outside Germany, and substantially increasing deportations of people without a right to remain. It uses the term “remigration” for returning people who, in its view, lack a legal right to stay. It also wants Germany to leave the UN migration and refugee compacts.
Reduce the EU’s powers and restore national sovereignty. The AfD opposes further European integration and wants the EU transformed away from a supranational/centralized union toward a looser association of sovereign European states—what it calls a “Europe of fatherlands.” Its 2025 platform proposes replacing the current EU structure with a new European economic and interest community.
Reverse much of Germany’s climate and energy policy. The party wants to abolish the CO₂ levy, end many renewable-energy subsidies and EU climate policies, restart nuclear power, retain or expand coal generation, and reverse restrictions on combustion-engine cars and oil/gas heating.
Lower taxes and reduce regulation. The AfD favors lower income, consumption and corporate taxes, abolition of the solidarity surcharge (Solidaritätszuschlag), a higher tax-free allowance, simplified taxation, less EU and German regulation,… Read more »
So the next question was which of these policies are considered ‘far right’ by ChatGPT?
ylum / “remigration”🔴 Strongest connectionVery restrictive immigration isn’t automatically far-right. The stronger far-right element is the nationalist framing of immigration as threatening Germany’s demographic/cultural character, combined with a large-scale “remigration” agenda. The AfD itself defines its official policy as removal of foreigners without a legal right to remain and explicitly says it rejects deporting German citizens because of migrant background. 2. Reduce EU powers / national sovereignty🟠 Can be, but not inherentlyEuroscepticism exists across the political spectrum. The far-right connection comes when sovereignty is embedded within a strongly nationalist conception of the state and nation.3. Anti-climate policy / nuclear / fossil fuels⚪ Not inherently far-rightOpposing CO₂ taxes, supporting nuclear power or opposing renewable subsidies are policy positions that can also be held by mainstream conservatives, libertarians, etc.4. Lower taxes / deregulation⚪ Not far-rightStandard economically liberal/conservative policy. Nothing inherently far-right about lowering corporate or income taxes.5. Russia / Ukraine / NATO orientation⚪/🟠 Not inherently far-rightWanting rapprochement with Russia or opposing Ukraine’s NATO membership doesn’t by itself make a movement far-right. Similar positions can occur on the far left.6. Tougher policing / criminal justice🟡 Mostly conventional right-wingMore police and harsher sentences aren’t inherently far-right.… Read more »
And those familiar with fraud in the US elections will not be surprised to hear that now the 25% – yes one quarter – of votes that were by mail have been counted AfD do not have the majority they should have. The truly astonishing thing is that EVERY party except for AfD received more votes by mail than at the ballot box. At least unlike some states in the US like California they do not spend days printing enough ballots to win. The hope it that three disaffected CDU MPs will ally with AfD so they can rule.
If nearly half of voters support one political stance, doesn’t that shift the centre, meaning that a hard or extreme postion is less extreme when compared with the average.
The reaction by Italy’s coalition leaders really shows who are the Fake Patriots and who are the True. While Deputy PM Matteo Salvini, his former deputy Vannacci, and Elon Musk celebrate the AfD victory, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani says it’s “terrible news”, and Meloni stays completely silent.
Meloni is a Fake Patriot who promised Indian leader Modi to let half a million Indians come to live and work in Italy, for no other reason than Modi demanded it, as he demands it of every foreign leader, adding to the others like the Bangladeshi Muslims working in Italy now threatening to “go on strike” unless they are allowed to build mosques there.
Salvini, Vannacci and Musk celebrate the AfD’s victory in Saxony. Tajani: ‘Terrible news’ – Il Sole 24 ORE
Thanks for this info.
The Bangladeshi thing is really bad news, as I was hoping to move to Italy next year to get away from the buggers…and you’re right about Meloni
Soon if you want to avoid rubbing shoulders with Bangladeshi, the place to go will be Bangladesh.
From what I’ve read on here Bangladesh is getting bigger, as opposed to disappearing under the rising, boiling seas.
Give it a few years, I might be able to pick up a nice quiet seafront condo, and slowly watch the tide go out…?
I am unable to understand why so many, Including my better half, believe that the AFD is a Nazi party. Hitler was a totalitarian racist, antisemitic thug who murdered opposition politicians, attacked Russia and had Green leanings. The leader of the AFD is a lesbian who is shacked up with an Indian woman, not antisemitic, abides by the constitional rules and wishes to see an end to the anti-Russian politics and return to good relations with the German economy running successfully on cheap Siberian gas. She also, sensibly wants to reopen the nuclear stations and is against Green lunacy. It is AFD politicians who have been attacked and possibly poisoned and not the Liberal Uniparty. And their anti mass immigration policy is now beginning to be accepted by the main parties that encouraged it in the first place..
Indeed, however:
“And their anti mass immigration policy is now beginning to be accepted by the main parties that encouraged it in the first place..”
Just like here I expect the Uniparty parties talk a good fight but will not deliver, see also Fake Conservatives promising that this time they will definitely deliver since Reform became the 3rd major force in politics.
46 % of Conservative MPs still support Net Zero. The others have embraced Reform policies in order to stay in office. They are still as untrustworthy as before.
“Untrustworthy” is a very polite way of describing these people.
But Kemi is such a brilliant leader she has completely changed the Conservative Party.
Oh look! a flock of pigs flying over Parliament Square.
Some of the front runners of the herd (our esteemed politicians) are splitting off and there is a lot of nervousness as to which way the mass of the herd will go. Will the break aways be followed? Won’t they. Do I break off and go with the break aways and stay relevant if the herd follows them? But what if they don’t follow them and I’ve broken away from the front pack? I’ll probably lose my place at the front.
It must be hard being a spineless politician with no principles other than acquiring position and power.
I think this is one of the easier things to explain.
If everyone calls them far right and Nazis, then they must be.
It’s no more complicated than that. No disrespect to your better half, but that’s the absolute norm as far as the depth of thought that most people go to with this sort of thing.
Not just with that but with most things. What a majority of people appear to say is good enough for most people.
Any politician/Party against the policies of the entrenched ruling mobsters, is automatically Far/Hard/Extreme Right, neo-Fascist, neo-Nazi particularly if they promote border security, and want to end to pass, uncontrolled immigration.
It’s true here with Reform UK and across Europe.
Despite the fact that the Nazis were left wing, NOT right wing. The name says it all – National Socialist German Workers Party.
The left don’t like the truth, so they pretend that a Workers party is right-wing. Simply lies.
The left have no understanding of the truth.
People who believe the AfD is a Nazi party really haven’t studied German history.
Exactly.
I’m not sure how this can be described as a rejection of the firewall when the majority voted against the AfD
I agree. But in this country when a third of the electorate votes for a party, that is called a landslide. So by that standard at least, this is a super landslide.
Obviously neither are. But these are the lies we tell ourselves to live in “democracy”.
Indeed. I think it’s hard to design any system of representation that doesn’t have serious flaws, which is why as you know I favour limiting what can be done in the name of that system to the bare minimum necessary for civil society to function.
A third??? It was barely 20% or one fifth, and many were voting anti-Tory not pro-Labour.
They didn’t vote against, they just didn’t vote for. There is a difference.
I would be fairly confident that most who voted for other parties support the firewall.
44% of the vote in the UK gives a Party a landslide win in our FPTP system. In every UK election the majority does not reject the ruling Party. And what did Labour get this time round? 33% on a very low turn-out.
Whether FPTP or some form of PR, elections are decided by plurality not majority.
From my understanding, all the parties bar BSW have said they would not work with AFD and therefore support the firewall. While the vote is an excellent result for the AFD, I don’t see how it can be portrayed as a decisive rejection of the firewall.