"It's far from decided." State Premier Sven Schulze likes to repeat his big campaign message over and over again ahead of the impending election in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt on September 6. His audience, however, rarely responds with enthusiasm.
The German public and international media alike are watching this election closely. Never before has the Alternative for Germany (AfD) — classified by the domestic intelligence agency as "confirmed right-wing extremist" — had a better chance to take over a state government. The party is polling at over 40% compared to Schulze's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at around 23%.
Schulze is hoping the AfD will stay below 50% and so be unable to secure a majority in the state parliament — and, with no other party willing to join it in a coalition, the AfD would be unable to form a government. That would leave it up to Schulze to form a coalition, perhaps with as many as three partners, and remain in office.
"We are fighting for every single voter right now," he told DW on August 7.
Young, family man, engineer, cyclist
Schulze was just 11 years old at the time of German reunification. Now, at 47, the qualified industrial engineer and father of three is the youngest of Germany's 16 state premiers.
He only took over leadership of the state at the end of January, when his predecessor, Reiner Haseloff — then 71 — retired after nearly 15 years in office. The early handover to Schulze was supposed to improve the younger man's prospects in the state election. After all, a sitting premier is said to enjoy an "incumbency bonus."
Schulze is now touring the state of 2 million inhabitants. On some days, he has been seen out and about on his bicycle, complete with cycling jersey and helmet, handing out ice cream on hot summer days, and engaging in small group discussions.
Aware that his party leader, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, is not exactly popular in Germany right now, one of his recurring messages has been that he is not there "to sell the Berlin government's ideas to Saxony-Anhalt." Instead, he said, his task is "to bring issues from Saxony-Anhalt to Berlin." Not everyone in Merz's government is necessarily pleased about this message.
Celebrities welcome, chancellor not so much
This became particularly evident when Schulze appeared at campaign events in the state's larger cities alongside Dieter Hallervorden — an actor and comedian who is a household name in Germany, and who was born in Dessau in Saxony-Anhalt nearly 91 years ago.
Hallervorden, not previously known as a CDU supporter, has now joined Schulze on stage during the election campaign four times. The venues were packed, and the events easily ranked among the best-attended of Schulze's campaign.
The comedian showed no compunctions about criticizing the federal government's defense and arms export policies. During one of his musical performances, an image of protesters bearing a banner with the slogan "Stop the genocide in Gaza" was briefly visible in the background.
Schulze calmly rejected sharp criticism of Hallervorden's involvement from his party's headquarters in Berlin. He maintained that he did not share, and even rejected some of Hallervorden's views, but had shared the stage with him to demonstrate his commitment to freedom of speech. The AfD, Schulze noted, seeks to abolish freedom of speech, while he does not.
AfD a threat to German culture, says Schulze
Dessau is known around the world as being one of the homes of the Bauhaus movement, which propelled art and architecture into the modern era starting in 1919. The Nazis sought to stifle the movement when they took power in 1933.
Now, more than 90 years later, some members of the AfD have again been directly echoing the Nazis' language about the famous movement. In a speech to the state parliament last year, AfD representative Hans-Thomas Tillschneider described Bauhaus as a "wrong track of modernism" — a direct quote from the 1928 book "Art and Race" by architecture critic Paul Schultze-Naumburg, who influenced Nazi thought.
Schulze has accused the AfD of wanting to return to Germany's past eras of oppression, and sought to tie the far-right party to East Germany's communist dictatorship.
"When the AfD sings the GDR anthem at the end of its party events, it shows exactly what it wants: a return to the days of the GDR," Schulze told DW. "And I do not want us to wall ourselves in again, as happened here before. That is not what the people want."
Running a local campaign
At campaign events, Schulze has attempted to shift the focus away from federal or global political issues and toward the situation within his home state. He often cites local businesses that rely on foreign employees and on exports to worldwide markets.
Regarding healthcare and care for the elderly, he warns against simply adopting, without debate, the recommendations of a commission appointed by the federal government. That again has directly contravened Merz's message, who said that those recommendations, which some say contain several cuts to public services, should and would be followed to the letter.
But Schulze remains undeterred, and has vowed to keep discussing the issues that matter to the people of Saxony-Anhalt. "I trust the people here," he said. He added that he is counting on the people of Saxony-Anhalt to stand up against having their state "turned upside down."
At times, he gets straight to the point: this election, he says, boils down to "Sven Schulze or the AfD."
This article was originally written in German.
