The results of a new opinion poll showed that the Alternative for Germany party could obtain 43 percent of the votes in the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament elections scheduled for next Sunday (September 6, 2026).
On the other hand, the results of the poll, which was conducted by the INSA Institute for Opinion Research for the NEWS platform, indicated that the branch of Chancellor Friedrich Merez's party, the Christian Democrats (centre-right), in the state would receive 22 percent, while the Left Party came in third place with 12 percent. The Social Democratic Party (center-left) will be represented in the state parliament by 7 percent and the Green Party by 5 percent.
The Alternative for Germany party, which was classified by the state's internal intelligence branch as a confirmed case of a far-right organization, has a clear lead in all opinion polls. If he wins by a large margin, he may govern a German state for the first time in its history, but the anti-immigrant party did not obtain a percentage in any of the polls that would qualify it to obtain an absolute majority.
The Alternative for Germany party was founded in 2013 and adopted a Eurosceptic policy at the time. But he quickly focused his speech, electoral strategy, and party programs on combating immigration after the major refugee wave in 2015.
The number of foreigners has doubled within a decade
The percentage of foreign residents in the state of Saxony-Anhalt is about 7.9 percent, which is much lower than the average in Germany, according to a report by DW. At the end of 2025, the state’s population of foreign nationals reached about 193 thousand people out of 2.18 million people living in the state. According to the state's official statistics office, the number of asylum seekers and recognized refugees is approximately 78,200 people.
Over the past ten years, the number of foreigners residing in Saxony-Anhalt has increased by 109,104 people. In 2015, the number of foreigners residing in Saxony-Anhalt was 83,051. The largest increases were recorded for holders of nationalities of the following countries: Ukraine (35,932), Syria (15,461), Romania (7,466), Afghanistan (6,998), and Poland (6,867).
At the end of 2025, Ukrainians (38,950) constituted the largest group of foreigners residing in Saxony-Anhalt, followed by holders of Syrian passports (29,165), according to the state's official statistics office.
Foreigners commit more than a fifth of crimes
According to criminal police statistics, excluding immigration violations, foreigners were responsible for 22 percent of all crimes in the state of Saxony-Anhalt last year, which is a high percentage when comparing their number to the total population, according to a report on the website of the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Immigrants are particularly involved in fraud, theft and burglary crimes, as their percentage exceeds 30 percent. In sexual crimes, the percentage reaches 16 percent, and in violent crimes such as assault, it reaches 20 percent.
The data clearly show that residents of Saxony-Anhalt are much less likely to be robbed or assaulted by a foreign criminal than they are to be robbed or assaulted by a German. Migrants make up nearly half of the victims of criminals who do not have German citizenship, and they represent only a small percentage of the population.
According to the same German newspaper, the rate of crimes against foreigners decreased by 3 percent between 2024 and 2025, despite the increase in the proportion of foreign residents. Compared to other German states, crimes against foreigners constitute a relatively small percentage. In the state of Baden-Württemberg, for example, the percentage of crimes committed by foreigners is 43 percent, and in the capital, Berlin, about 50 percent.
To reduce this crime, psychologist and researcher on foreign crimes, who heads the Institute of Criminal Research in Lower Saxony, Thomas Plesner, recommends increasing language courses, improving employment services, and providing anti-violence programs in schools.
A Saudi psychiatrist was sentenced at the end of June to life imprisonment in the case of his car ramming into a Christmas market in late 2024 in Magdeburg, the state capital, resulting in six deaths and more than 300 injuries.
Meretz: Foreign investors will refrain from investing
Foreign students, nurses, scientists and entrepreneurs contribute to the state's economic development in many sectors.
In 2025, about 10 percent of those enrolled in new vocational training programs in Saxony-Anhalt did not have a German passport. About 14 percent of doctors in the state are foreigners, according to a report by the public broadcaster Central Germany (MDR). Their presence increases in rural areas of the state and sometimes reaches nearly half.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned of the "great damage" that would befall the state located in the east of the country if the extreme right took power there. Merz said in an interview with the German Broadcasting Corporation: “I cannot imagine that international investors would want to come to lay the foundation stone for a new factory alongside the head of a state government from the Alternative for Germany party.”
Economists warn that the AfD's anti-immigration campaign, in addition to the human suffering it will cause, will have a catastrophic economic impact on the small state, which has already lost nearly a quarter of its population since German reunification in 1990.
Immigration is an economic necessity
Under Germany's federal system, the party's rise to power at the state level will give it broad powers in health and education, and even in some aspects of immigration and security policies.
Economic and demographic indicators in Saxony-Anhalt clearly show the state's need for immigration. According to the Magdeburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK Magdeburg), “the migration of skilled workers is an economic necessity,” according to a report by the public broadcaster ADR (MDR).
The candidate of the "Alternative for Germany" party, Ulrich Zigmond, who is seeking to assume the presidency of the state government of Saxony-Anhalt, has pledged to expel all irregular immigrants "from the first minute" of assuming power. However, he reiterated that his party only targets “irregulars and those required to leave the country,” stressing that “regular immigration that meets strict standards will not pose a problem.”
Migrants prepare to pack their belongings
For Syrian-born cardiologist Ayman al-Youssef, head physician at a clinic in Quedlinburg, the prospect of AfD ruling the state is pessimistic. “I fear that xenophobia will spread,” he said, a sentiment that has become prevalent among a growing number of immigrants.
Ayman Al-Youssef, who arrived in Germany in 2014 and obtained citizenship, says that he was welcomed by patients and colleagues, yet he sometimes faces some harassment in the street, while his wife and daughter, who wear the hijab, suffer from the same problem.
For its part, the Refugee Council confirmed that many foreigners reported being exposed to “racist attitudes and cases of social exclusion,” and that the increasing talk of mass deportation raises a state of “fear and confusion.”
An unprecedented protest strike
Rizwan Talash (24 years old), an Afghan immigrant who has been working in computer maintenance in the city of Magdeburg for six years, expresses the same concerns. He wonders: "Will my life remain as it is now? This question never leaves my mind." Ridvan Talash, a volunteer at an association to support immigrants, added, "Quite a few people in our state have left recently because they fear that we will not be safe after the elections."
These fears are not limited to doctors or a specific category of immigrants, as on August 26, about 150 restaurants, cafes and hair salons run by immigrants closed their doors for five hours in Magdeburg, the state capital, in protest against what they say is “a more hostile climate towards foreigners.”
