The extreme right is approaching power in Germany. For a majority of citizens it is the most serious moment facing German democracy; For a minority, although on the rise, it is a rebellion against a system that mistreats them. Alternative for Germany (AfD) was the second most voted force in the 2025 federal elections and in this Sunday's elections in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt it aspires to an absolute majority. State institutions and the party's detractors warn that its proposals are a danger to the rule of law and to Europe.
"AfD is organized by extremists, with ideas that unfortunately its voters justify. It is neo-fascism," says Axel Salheiser, director of studies at the Jena Institute for Democracy and Civil Society (IDZ). He is not the only one who thinks this way. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's internal secret services, concluded in 2025 that the AfD was a “right-wing extremist” formation that seeks to subvert the constitutional order and democracy. The social democrats of the SPD and the Greens call for its illegalization. Sven Hüber, vice president of the Police Union (GdP), recommended this August to law enforcement officers in Saxony-Anhalt that they be prepared to refuse to follow orders from a possible AfD government if they believe that these violate democratic principles.
Polls give the far right between 41% and 43% electoral support in Saxony-Anhalt, close to an absolute majority of seats. If it does not obtain this majority, only an entente between the rest of the political formations, the so-called cordon sanitaire, could prevent the AfD from coming to power in a German state for the first time. The alternative is that Sven Schulze, of the CDU, renews the presidency of the land with the support of all these forces. The center Christian Democratic CDU party may have 23% of the vote, according to the latest polls.
The AfD group in Saxony-Anhalt is considered one of the most radical. The vice president of the party in this land, Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, is known for relativizing Nazi crimes and for admiring the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin. But it's not just about Tillschneider. Ulrich Siegmund, its candidate, stated on September 3 in an education program on public television ZDF that Nazism should have less prominence in schools: "We cannot always be ashamed of our history. We are not to blame for it."
Experts point to the reforms in public education in Saxony-Anhalt as the most dangerous front proposed by the AfD. The Robert Bosch Foundation assumes in a recent document that “some of the points raised by the AfD are simply unworkable under current legislation.”
The AfD electoral program argues that German history must be taught differently: “We must encourage the positive aspects of German history, build a feeling of pride and confidence in being German.” The idea of recovering “German pride” is repeated in almost all areas, including culture, of the program: it promises, for example, that a far-right government will not tolerate plays in public theaters where “anti-German creations” are staged.
A report by the Evangelical Church of Central Germany on the AfD program emphasizes the possible unconstitutionality of the system of hiring civil society organizations based on their "patriotic" values: "Afd establishes that with its Land Government, each organization that receives institutional support or public money must demonstrate its patriotic position. How will this patriotism be judged? The AfD no longer cares about democracy or the Constitution."
AfD considers that the training provided by public schools is deficient because it must assume the integration of the migrant population. To this end, they propose, among other measures, that the children of refugee families study in classes separate from the rest: "Schools are supposed to integrate immigrants, solve all kinds of social imbalances and compensate for the damage caused by dysfunctional families. AfD opposes this." “It cannot be that our children suffer the consequences of massive immigration,” they add.
The program insists on the negative effect of the presence of Muslim families and Ukrainian refugees. AfD assures that Russian will be introduced as a foreign language to be studied in schools and that student exchange agreements will be established with the Russian Government.
German intelligence services also see the AfD as a risk to national security due to its proximity to the Putin regime. In the case of forming a Government in Saxony-Anhalt, the extreme right would be present in meetings at the federal level in which confidential information about German security is shared. This was the case, for example, with the failed drone bomb attack on August 4 at Leipzig airport. The interior ministers of the German states met and received information about the possible Russian responsibility for the attack.
Another area in which the AfD's position would clash with current legislation is in matters of foreigners. Among the decisions that Siegmund has promised to implement in the first 100 days of Government is the immediate deportation of all immigrants without legal papers who are in Saxony-Anhalt. Siegmund assures that in his shock plan he will suspend public aid to asylum seekers and refugees who are proven to be able to have a job and do not work; and wants to ban the reception programs of the different religious institutions in Saxony-Anhalt. The regional reception system will also change so that these vulnerable groups have their social housing in specific centers, "to avoid potential conflicts with the population."
AfD assures that it will immediately cut off any cooperation and subsidies from the public administration with organizations that represent the rights of LGTBIQ+ groups and women. “This perverse leftist, radical feminist and individualist spirit erodes the traditional family, role models, denies and criminalizes biological reality,” reads the electoral program.
The fight against climate change is another field in which the AfD proposes a 180-degree turn that risks legal clashes with the federal government. Germany has decarbonization commitments in the EU that Siegmund does not intend to respect if he is elected president. AfD underlines in its Saxony-Anhalt program that it “categorically rejects globalist climate ideology and the associated policies that destroy prosperity.” “AfD will develop a coherent adaptation strategy for the state, we must adapt to the ever-changing climate that has existed since time immemorial.” This would materialize in the elimination of aid for renewable energies, the end of concessions to install photovoltaic and wind energy fields, the suppression of regional laws that require energy efficiency in buildings and the promotion of local coal mining.
“Our agenda is not what is dictated to us in Brussels, in Ukraine, in the UN Global Compact for Migration or in the Paris Climate Conference, it is solely and exclusively the well-being of the citizens of Saxony-Anhalt,” concludes the AfD program.
AfD is not the only party in Europe that puts forward similar ideas. The difference is that Germany has been “by historical responsibility a pillar of stability on the international stage,” explains Sudha David-Wilp, vice president of the American-German political think tank German Marshall Fund (GMF). “The rise of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt has international repercussions because it shows that the political margin in Germany is shrinking,” says David-Wilp.
The GMF representative warns that the extreme right in Germany is in a phase of radicalization, "unlike what has happened with its equivalents in other large EU countries, such as France or Italy, where they have moderated."
"The AfD's problem is that they insist that they do not plan to change and accept the system," adds Axel Salheiser: "They are not from the same family as Giorgia Meloni or Marine Le Pen because they have excluded the most radical sectors of their parties and have accepted the basic rules of democracy. The AfD does not want to do this."
