An hour and a half after the polling stations closed in Saxony-Anhalt, “L’Humanité” wrote that the AfD should have an absolute majority in the state parliament in Magdeburg and could therefore elect its top candidate, Ulrich Siegmund, as Prime Minister. His chances of success are all the more “overwhelming” because the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) has promised him its support.
In the rush to brand a “historic brown success,” the communist paper ran away with its horses. Other French newspapers reported more accurately: The AfD had more than doubled its share of the vote compared to 2021, but it was uncertain whether it would be able to form the next government in the fifth-smallest federal state - also because the BSW's position, to put it neutrally, was "ambivalent".
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In the run-up to the election, newspapers in France had already explained the German federal system to their readers, explained why this election was important despite the, let's say, manageable dimensions of Saxony-Anhalt, and had imagined the possible consequences for Germany's political system and for the reputation of the largest EU state. “Le Monde” in particular also took a close look at the AfD’s program – which was never mentioned at Siegmund’s election rallies, which reminded Germany correspondent Elsa Conesa of an “American theme park”.
Ulrich Siegmund remembers Jordan Bardella in France
Perhaps most interesting is what the newspapers don't write. Namely: that many questions and problem points that are currently being discussed in Germany are déjà vu in France. When it comes to the triumph of right-wing extremism, Marianne is light years ahead of Germania. The first right-wing extremist party of any significance since the end of the Second World War was founded there in 1972; In 1983 and 1986, today's Rassemblement National (RN) achieved its first successes at local and then national level.
The AfD was founded in 2013, but entered the Bundestag in 2017 - its rise is much faster than that of the RN. The AfD poster boy Siegmund – young, photogenic, blessed, according to many observers, with the profile of the “ideal son-in-law” – has a counterpart in France in RN President Jordan Bardella. The rift in the party between Putin fans and Trump groupies, which became apparent in the fall, has existed in the RN for years. Only recently, on the occasion of the expulsion of the Russian propagandist Xenia Fedorova, diametrically opposed positions emerged from the ranks of the French movement. Climate skepticism is rampant here and there - but the RN does not go as far as praising combustion engines and Russian gas, as the AfD regional association in Saxony-Anhalt does.
The decline of once-great parties is not new to France
Should we let the right-wing extremists come to power so that they “fall on their faces,” as “Le Point” quotes the CDU mayor of Quedlinburg? The question has been discussed in France since the RN has real prospects of having a prime minister (like after the disastrous dissolution of the National Assembly in 2024), if not even a female president (like next year). The party has already governed at the municipal level, not only in small towns like the AfD, but in cities with over 100,000 inhabitants such as Toulon (between 1995 and 2001) and, since 2020, in Perpignan. A number of right-wing extremist mayors have to leave after one term in office, but this year at least twenty of them were re-elected - the danger of permanent entrenchment is real.
The fall of the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt is just as significant as the victory of the AfD, writes “Mediapart”. And the party could fall apart if one or more members of the Magdeburg state parliament tore down the firewall and reached out to the right-wing extremists, explains Sorbonne professor of contemporary German history Hélène Miard-Delacroix in “Le Monde”. Neither is anything new for the French. In 1968, the Gaullists held over sixty percent of the seats in the National Assembly; today their distant descendants, Les Républicains, still hold eight percent. In 2024, the former state party split when its then president announced an alliance with the RN without internal prior consultation.
Last but not least, the rapprochement between association leaders and right-wing extremists is much more advanced in France than in Germany. When the president of the business association “The Family Businesses,” Marie-Christine Ostermann, called for a change of course in dealing with the AfD in November, there was widespread talk of a breach of taboo. There is so much material on the subject in France that Laurent Mauduit was able to publish a three-hundred-page book on it in 2025 with the eloquent title “Collaborations”. Only recently did Medef, the most important French employers' association, organize the first major TV debate of the 2027 presidential election. RN top candidate Marine Le Pen was naturally one of the seven invited participants.
However, there is an important difference. In France, the RN has been relying on “de-devilization” for a long time. According to “L’Express”, the situation is exactly the opposite with the AfD: “The more radical it is, the greater its popularity.” In May 2024, Le Pen broke with the AfD - the movement was too provocative, too extreme for her.
