According to a survey in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD is clearly ahead

Saxony-Anhalt: AfD clearly ahead in survey

In Saxony-Anhalt, the final campaign spurt begins today before the state elections on Sunday - and in the latest survey, the AfD is still well ahead of the CDU. In the survey conducted by the Elections Research Group on behalf of ZDF, the AfD and its top candidate Ulrich Siegmund achieved 41 percent, one point more than a week ago. The Christian Democrats are hoping for another term in office for Prime Minister Sven Schulze and remain unchanged at 23 percent.

With an election result like the one in this survey, the AfD would miss its goal of governing alone, but it would also be difficult to form a government bypassing it. The CDU would therefore have to rely on the support of the Left in order to form a minority government with the SPD and the Greens against the AfD, which is classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony-Anhalt as definitely right-wing extremist. In the CDU there is an incompatibility decision against “coalitions and similar forms of cooperation” with the Left and the AfD.

According to the survey, the Left is in third place with 11.5 percent - 1.5 points less than the research group determined the previous week. The SPD lost 0.5 points and got 8.5 percent, the Greens remained unchanged at 6 percent. The BSW with 4 percent (plus 1 point) and the FDP with 3 percent would not get over the five percent hurdle, the other parties together would reach 3 percent. An alliance of CDU, SPD and FDP currently governs Magdeburg.

Nouripour: AfD stirs up false fears of election fraud

Bundestag Vice President Omid Nouripour rejects fears of election manipulation. “The way AfD representatives and those around them have tried to stir up concerns about alleged manipulation of postal voting is irritating,” the Green politician told the German Press Agency in Berlin. “These are targeted attacks on the integrity of the democratic electoral system that has proven itself over decades.”

Before the state elections on September 6th in Saxony-Anhalt, AfD chairman Tino Chrupalla sowed doubts that everything would be done correctly with postal voting. From conversations with carers and relatives, he knows of cases in nursing homes “where the pen was held, so to speak”.

The AfD's top candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, appealed to “look closely” at nursing homes. Nothing should be dictated from a “left or green corner,” he said on Platform

Nouripour emphasized that if there were isolated inconsistencies or attempts at fraud, the rule of law would provide for controls. There are security measures against mass manipulation.

Siegmund's statement that he would accept the election results is unbelievable, says Nouripour. “Anyone who wants to delegitimize elections in advance is obviously preparing to doubt the results after the election and drive voters to the barricades.” He warns against using disinformation and conspiracy theories to stir up sentiment against fair and free elections.

FDP rejects proposal for an AI tax

The FDP has rejected considerations in the SPD for taxing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in companies as poison for the economy. “The SPD is working on making Germany even less attractive as a business location,” said FDP General Secretary Martin Hagen to the German Press Agency in Berlin.

“The planned taxation of economic value creation in the area of ​​AI will be a further brake on innovation and growth for our country,” warned the FDP politician. “With an AI tax, we are closing ourselves off to future areas of prosperity and preventing the establishment of future-proof jobs.”

Hagen was reacting to the SPD's plans to possibly put taxes and levies on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics on the agenda. If AI increasingly replaces jobs, then social security contributions will be one of the questions, said SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch before a closed meeting of his parliamentary group. It's about combining technical progress and good work in the future.

FDP General Secretary Hagen emphasized that the opposite signal from the SPD's considerations would be necessary, namely a reduction in the tax burden for all business income to a maximum of 20 percent. “This is the only way we can make the leap from a country with high taxes to a country with economic growth.”

Police: Possible firing device discovered at substation in Dormagen

After a suspicious object was found at a substation in Dormagen between Cologne and Düsseldorf, the police are assuming an act of sabotage. The investigators have a letter of confession in which other - already publicly known - suspected cases in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg are mentioned, a spokesman for the Cologne police told the German Press Agency.

The investigations into the suspicious object that a walker discovered at the substation in Dormagen on Thursday evening have not yet been completed. It may be a “suspicious launching device,” said the spokesman. The police are also checking other substations in surrounding regions to see whether suspicious objects have also been placed there. At the moment, with the exception of the substation in Bergheim near Cologne, no damage has been found.

On Tuesday there was an attack on a substation in Bergheim, west of Cologne. According to authorities, cables had been brought over the overhead line, causing a short circuit. Several launchers were subsequently discovered.

A similar incident had occurred a few hours earlier in southern Brandenburg. On Tuesday morning near the Jänschwalde power plant, conductive material was directed towards the high-voltage lines with the help of self-made missiles that resembled New Year's Eve rockets. More than a dozen devices for this purpose have been found. According to the network operator, there was no power outage. The investigators had announced that they assumed that the incidents in Bergheim and Jänschwalde were due to unconstitutional sabotage.

The “taz” reported on Thursday evening that it had received a letter of responsibility for the incident in Brandenburg, which, according to the postmark, was sent in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to the newspaper, the sender presents himself as a lone perpetrator who describes the homemade rockets used in detail and points to the “immeasurable suffering” caused by the use of fossil fuels as a motive. After extensive research, the “taz” expressly pointed out that it could not be clarified beyond doubt whether the author of the letter was also the perpetrator.

CDU workers' wing warns against collaboration with AfD

The chairman of the CDU workers' wing (CDA), Dennis Radtke, has warned of the downfall of his party if he collaborates with the AfD after the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. “The moment we work with this party and make it responsible, the CDU is broken,” said Radtke on Thursday evening on the ZDF program “maybrit illner”. “That just has to be clear to everyone.”

With regard to efforts within the CDU parliamentary group in the Magdeburg state parliament for a coalition with the AfD, Radke urgently warned: “Whoever wants that and whoever goes through with something like that” is giving the AfD what it wants. The social politician appealed to the responsibility of his party friends in Saxony-Anhalt, including the federal CDU. “Responsibility for the big picture” “doesn’t stop at your own town entrance sign,” he warned.

Radtke still believes the so-called firewall is “right”. The CDU cannot be obliged to “talk and negotiate with a party that is diametrically opposed to what Christian Democratic DNA is,” he said.

The AfD is not a “CDU of the past”, but “from day one” an anti-European, anti-Western and pro-Russian party. “We have nothing in common with these people.” In the course of this, Radtke reiterated his party's fundamental decision, on the basis of which the CDU rules out cooperation with both the AfD and the Left Party.

Protection of the power grids: Ministry of Economic Affairs sees a need to catch up

After the attacks on substations in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, the Federal Ministry of Economics sees a need to catch up in protecting the power grids. The incidents once again made clear “how important it is to consistently strengthen the resilience of the electricity system,” a ministry spokesman told the Germany editorial network on Friday. The ministry and the Federal Network Agency are therefore “in close contact with the affected stakeholders and the industry and are consistently implementing measures where necessary”.

The fact that the country and the economy need to “arm themselves better” is shown by “the Russian war of aggression, increased acts of sabotage on the economy, but also increasing extreme weather events,” the spokesman continued. From the ministry’s perspective, sabotage against critical infrastructure represented “a serious danger”.

After attacks on two substations in Bergheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Jänschwalde, Brandenburg, on Tuesday, both cases are being investigated on suspicion of attacks on critical infrastructure. Possible connections are investigated. On Thursday, the police also went to an operation at a substation in Dormagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, because of a suspicious object.