Germany live blog: Haseloff blames West German media for the rise of the AfD
The former Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff, in conversation with the German Press Agency dpa
Haseloff's theory on the rise of the AfD in the East
Saxony-Anhalt's former Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff is jumping to the side of his successor Sven Schulze in the election campaign - and in doing so makes the media in Germany partly responsible for the rise of the AfD. He defends himself against “when the AfD always points to the East – the AfD is a Western party,” Haseloff told the German Press Agency in an interview. “It emerged from the West German elite, the leading figures are almost all West Germans, and it is also clearly ahead of all other parties in the West.”
The CDU politician continued: "We therefore have to have a discussion from East Germany: What has gone wrong in West Germany in the last few years and decades, why were many important issues only discussed on the sidelines by the elite?"
The CDU politician Reiner Haseloff was Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt from 2011 to January 2026. dpa
The media is partly responsible for the rise of the AfD. There is almost exclusively a western view of the so-called “Ossi,” said the CDU politician. Viewing the “Ossi” from a West German perspective is ultimately “a reinforcement for the AfD in the East”. Haseloff criticized negative headlines on the front pages. "You can only think: Just get out of here, everything is really bad. This is a self-castigation of this society," said the 72-year-old politician.
Haseloff also said he never thought the term “firewall” was helpful. "The socially relevant groups, for example, would have to make the real consequences of AfD policies much clearer - for example, we have a third of our wealth because we are in the European Union. People have to be made aware that they will have to forego this third if they vote for a party that wants to leave the EU."
Krach wants to set up a million-dollar program for addiction help in Berlin
The Berlin SPD's top candidate for the House of Representatives election, Steffen Krach, has presented an additional million-dollar program for drug and addiction help. In a press conference he presented a so-called Berlin Model 2.0 against the drug crisis. As an immediate program, Krach's concept envisages around an additional million euros for 2027. According to the concept, the amount should increase gradually in the following years - to up to 25 million euros per year by 2030.
Of course it costs money, said Krach, but: “A sum of 25 million euros is something that a country like Berlin can afford.” The Berlin state budget is around 45.5 billion euros for 2026 and 46.5 billion euros for 2027.
Will the BSW leadership's demand to withdraw from the Thuringian coalition fizzle out?
At the BSW, the dispute between the federal leadership and the Thuringian state leadership is coming to a head again. Party leader Fabio De Masi defended the Federal Executive Board's call on Monday morning to call for an end to the coalition in Thuringia. After Prime Minister Mario Voigt (CDU) had his doctorate revoked due to allegations of plagiarism, it was about “credibility in politics,” said De Masi in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. If the BSW lets this go, it would also damage its own credibility and have “no chance” in the upcoming state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, for example.
The parliamentary group in the Thuringian state parliament is currently holding a parliamentary group meeting. Shortly before that, Digital Minister Steffen Schütz said that the dispute between the state and federal levels had to be fundamentally resolved. “I am pretty sure that this is a right and a good decision, that we can now get clarification,” said Schütz in Erfurt before the start of a meeting of the Thuringian BSW state parliamentary group. However, he did not indicate any willingness to leave the coalition.
Schütz was dissatisfied with the statements made by BSW federal chairman Fabio De Masi on Monday morning in ZDF's morning magazine - except for one point: "It's about credibility," said Schütz. The Thuringian BSW has entered into a contract to form a coalition in Thuringia. “And I think we’re doing a pretty good job.”
Fake videos about Lower Saxony politicians
According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, politicians from Lower Saxony are being exposed to a slander campaign. As the “Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung” reports, it is the so-called Matryoshka campaign. Experts therefore suspect that Russia is behind the campaign.
Before the upcoming state elections in several federal states and the local elections in Lower Saxony (September 13th), false reports about candidates are being spread using fake videos on social media. The posts attribute crimes such as murder, arson, sexual abuse and corruption to those affected. According to the article, the CDU, SPD, Left, FDP and Green parties are affected. These should be politicians at the state and local levels. It was said that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution was aware of a double-digit number of videos.
Hubertz declares heat to be a “social question”
Federal Construction Minister Verena Hubertz has defended the heat action plan presented by the SPD ministries against criticism. “Heat has long been a social issue,” the Social Democrat told the “Rheinische Post” on Monday. “Anyone who lives in an attic apartment with no shade and no garden of their own is significantly more exposed to stress in the summer than others.” Climate adaptation is therefore decided where people live.
What happened to the Mercians who placed all their hope in one man?
Friedrich Merz has been criticized by many in the past few weeks and months, including from his own party. But what about the current Chancellor's former fans, who supported him for decades and were finally elected party leader in 2022? My colleagues Tobias Schrörs and Rüdiger Soldt asked themselves this question.
In the Baden-Württemberg CDU they are observing disillusionment with the federal government led by Merz, while at the same time long-time supporters are defending the Chancellor and CDU chairman. “I don’t know anyone who is working towards a change of chancellor in Baden-Württemberg,” said former Baden-Württemberg Prime Minister Günther Oettinger to the F.A.Z. “Nobody aspires to have Chancellor Markus Söder, Hendrik Wüst has his own election to pass.” At the same time, he spoke of “disappointments and disillusionment” in the party. “But they apply less to Merz and more to the reform policy itself,” said Oettinger.
Former Baden-Württemberg state parliamentary group leader Wolfgang Reinhart said he was “mercilessly disappointed” in the Chancellor. CDU officials describe the mood regarding Merz's chancellorship as follows: "Previously, 75 percent of the members were for him, 25 percent were skeptical about him. Today it's the other way around." But there are still strong supporters: the chairman of the middle class parliamentary group, Christian von Stetten (CDU), defended Merz. He said he would vote for Merz to lead the CDU again.
Gabriel: The SPD turned the welfare state into a welfare state
Former SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel has accused his party of distancing itself from its previous voter base. “The real problem of the SPD is not the firewall, but rather there is a big misunderstanding about what a welfare state is,” the 66-year-old told the German Press Agency (dpa) in an interview. The welfare state is the greatest achievement of civilization of the 20th century; it should create conditions under which every life can thrive. But: “The SPD turned it into an all-encompassing social welfare state.”
When it came to citizens' benefit, for example, according to Gabriel, many employees had the impression that their life's work was no longer sufficiently respected because suddenly those who did not work received almost as much from the state as those who had worked all their lives in the lower income groups. “With this devastating law, the SPD has thrown the workers’ chair in front of the door.”
Former SPD party leader Gabriel. dpa
Gabriel: Firewall failed
Gabriel would also have chosen a different approach to the pension reform currently being discussed. “Anyone who talks about deductions and longer working hours must consider how this affects people who are physically exhausted after 45 years of insurance, for example cashiers or geriatric nurses,” he said. “Many have the impression that such decisions are made by people who cannot even imagine an average pension of 1,200 euros and who live in comfortable and well-paid jobs.”
Gabriel continued: “I would have preferred if we had told the pensioners: Be careful, you will get an adjustment to the inflation rate in the next few years, but there is nothing more.” Nobody should have less purchasing power, but in the foreseeable future there should no longer be any share in employee wage increases. "We can't do that anymore. I would have thought that was a communicable and easier rule than offering a very large proportion of working people either working lives of 48, 50 or more years or corresponding pension cuts. This is perceived as unfair not only in East Germany."
Gabriel was federal chairman of the SPD from 2009 to 2017 and vice-chancellor from 2013 to 2018. Gabriel believes the firewall against the AfD has failed. Democrats should not cooperate with a party that does not draw a clear line between national conservative, national reactionary and right-wing radical. “But that is a fundamental position and not yet a strategy in the political fight against the AfD.” According to Gabriel, the AfD could be placed in its specific positions in terms of content. “Instead, they make it too easy for her to make herself comfortable behind the firewall.”
In the first half of 2026, more than 9,000 people traveled back to their home countries
According to a report, significantly more migrants and rejected asylum seekers are leaving Germany voluntarily. In the first six months of the current year, 9,276 people traveled back to their home countries as part of the federal return programs, as the newspapers of the Funke media group reported on Monday. They rely on the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. In the first half of 2025 there were 7,348 people.
According to the information provided, the federal authorities supported 16,578 people with a sponsored return to their country of origin or a third country that was willing to accept them. In 2024 there were still 10,358 people.
According to the report, according to the Central Register of Foreigners, 258,845 people in Germany were required to leave the country at the end of June this year. Of these, 199,271 were tolerated. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, federal and state authorities deported 18,939 people between January and the end of June, some with coercion by the police, another with incentives and support, as it was said.
The federal government uses a special program to finance voluntary returns to countries of origin or third countries. According to the information, the Federal Office covers flight costs for the departure and pays 1,000 euros per adult and 500 euros for children and young people.
Wagenknecht wants to talk to Höcke
Sahra Wagenknecht wants to talk to the Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke. “We're talking a lot about each other right now, why don't we talk to each other?” asks the BSW founder in a video that she published on the X platform on Sunday evening. After Höcke's offer to help her become Prime Minister in Thuringia, she made him a "very simple offer" days ago: "You and I live, neutral moderator, no prepared speeches."
Wagenknecht suggested having a political debate. “We should talk about my proposal for a non-partisan prime minister, which you now also like.” Ultimately, Thuringia needs “a new head of government who is credible and will put an end to the firewall madness.” This is also the right path for Saxony-Anhalt, said Wagenknecht; AfD federal spokeswoman Alice Weidel had previously rejected an offer from the BSW founder for a debate. Höcke, said Wagenknecht, should now “take heart”. “You of all people, who place so much value on masculinity, certainly don’t want to look like a coward,” Wagenknecht concluded her video message.
Höcke intervened in the BSW-internal dispute in Thuringia on Thursday: The AfD state leader demanded that she should be elected prime minister of the state with the help of the AfD. “My group and I are ready to clear the way for you to do this,” explained Höcke in Erfurt. "Let's write political history and tear down the firewall in Thuringia together. Not sometime after the election in Saxony-Anhalt, but right now."
In Thuringia, Prime Minister Mario Voigt's CDU has governed since the state elections in 2024 together with the SPD and BSW in a three-party coalition, but without an absolute majority, which is why it works with the Left in the state parliament.
The Thuringian BSW wants to discuss tomorrow how it wants to deal with the federal executive board's demand to leave the coalition.
The Green Party leader demands that the CDU be willing to talk to the Left
Green Party leader Felix Banaszak is demanding that the CDU be willing to talk to the Left Party about a possible government formation without the AfD after the eastern state elections.
