Ulrich Siegmund: The rise of the AfD politician in Saxony-Anhalt

“Everything is possible” is what the AfD has posted everywhere in Saxony-Anhalt - and he is the man who has made a lot possible for his party: Ulrich Siegmund, 35 years old, from the small town of Tangermünde.

In the past few months, Siegmund has been carried by a veritable wave of euphoria. No matter where he went during the election campaign, the response was great. Hundreds took part in his moped rides. Sports halls and cultural centers filled up when it was announced at citizen dialogues. People waited in long queues to take a photo with the AfD politician. He hardly needed any specific content in his performances. Most of the time it was enough to smile - and make people feel like they were part of a movement.

A rhetoric of us versus them

Siegmund's rise began during the corona pandemic. He gained several hundred thousand followers on Tiktok and Instagram by criticizing the containment measures. As health policy spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group, he was then able to present his points in parliament. His commitment was rewarded: in 2022, Siegmund was promoted to co-chairman of the parliamentary group.

Siegmund has come under criticism several times in his political career. It didn't really hurt him. After a meeting in Potsdam, at which the former head of the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement, Martin Sellner, spoke about “remigration,” Siegmund was removed from office as chairman of the social committee in the state parliament. But even this measure he used to cultivate his us-versus-them rhetoric.

Siegmund smiles away critical questions

Siegmund was also right in the middle of the AfD nepotism affair a few months ago. According to media reports, his father is said to have received more than 7,500 euros a month as an employee in the Bundestag office of an AfD party colleague. Siegmund tried to refute the criticism that arose, including other cross-employments in the AfD, by saying that they were relying on people they could trust.

During the election campaign, the trained foreign trade merchant was often confronted by journalists with radical passages from the AfD election program. But regardless of whether it was the abolition of compulsory schooling, the change of curricula or the rejection of "professionals from a foreign culture" - he often smiled away critical questions or tried to present the demands as harmless. He also considers employees with a right-wing extremist past in now banned organizations to be unproblematic in his immediate environment.

There are also voices that say that Saxony-Anhalt could eventually become too small for Siegmund as a stage. Will he move to Berlin with the 2029 federal election? In any case, Ulrich Siegmund knows his way around election campaigns.