German conservative mayor donates €10,000 to far-right AfD

A conservative German mayor’s €10,000 donation to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is making things awkward for his party’s leaders.

Bernd Prange, a Christian Democrat who serves as mayor of Altmärkische Höhe in Saxony-Anhalt, wrote in an open letter on Wednesday that he would be voting for the AfD in the state’s upcoming election on Sept. 6. “I want the AfD to become so strong in the Saxony-Anhalt election that it can govern alone,” wrote Prange.

The goal, he said, was for his own party to “finally wake up,” tear down Germany’s political firewall and abandon what he called its shift to the left.

The letter prompted swift criticism from within his own party: “I don’t like it. I can say that very clearly,” Saxony-Anhalt CDU Premier Sven Schulze told POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook Podcast on Thursday. “I think his approach is wrong. Definitely,” adding that he did not share Prange’s views “in any way.”

As for whether the mayor will remain a Christian Democrat, Schulze was in no rush to make a call: “We’ll deal with the issue after the election,” he said. “Right now, it’s campaign time.”

In an interview published earlier on Wednesday, Schulze had dismissed speculation about possible defections after the election: “No, someone switching from the CDU to the AfD will not happen,” he said. And while Prange hasn’t formally changed political allegiance, he said he wants Chancellor Friedrich Merz “removed” as CDU leader and accused him of running a party that is “giving up the conservative core of the Union.”

The episode hits the CDU at a perilous moment, as Merz struggles to maintain the country’s “firewall” against cooperation with the far right while support for the AfD surges across eastern Germany.

The AfD is polling between 41 and 43 percent in Saxony-Anhalt — almost twice the CDU’s 22 to 24 percent — putting the far right within striking distance of governing alone. Merz continues to rule out cooperation with the AfD, but September’s elections will put that under sustained pressure: Saxony-Anhalt votes on Sept. 6, followed by Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on Sept. 20.