Election in Saxony-Anhalt: Thousands of people expected to demonstrate before election Sunday

An alliance of trade unions and civil society is calling for a rally in Magdeburg, among other places - in the immediate vicinity of the end of the AfD election campaign.

All developments in the live blog

In addition to our own research, we use material from the news agencies dpa, Reuters, epd, KNA and Bloomberg for our live blog. You can also find all the news, analyzes and background information on the election in Saxony-Anhalt on our topic page.

Important updates

Significantly more attacks on journalists

Schulze: “Don’t build castles in the air”

About “foreign doctors” who don’t speak German

Candidates set their topics - Siegmund wants to realign the Office for the Protection of the Constitution

Another duel between top candidates Schulze and Siegmund

Thousands of people are expected to demonstrate in Magdeburg and Halle

Several thousand people are expected to take part in demonstrations and rallies in Saxony-Anhalt on the election weekend. According to police information, a dozen events have been registered in the state capital Magdeburg and several pro-democracy rallies in Halle (Saale). The largest will take place this afternoon on Magdeburg Cathedral Square: an alliance of trade unions and civil society is expecting around 8,000 participants here. In addition, the AfD, which is clearly ahead of the CDU in the polls and is hoping for a sole government, is officially concluding its election campaign.

The major election research institutes are not expecting a surprise like five years ago, when the AfD ultimately performed weaker on election day than in previous surveys and the CDU significantly stronger than expected. “We do not expect such a large mobilization effect in the last few days as in 2021,” said the head of the elections research group, Matthias Jung, to the German Press Agency. This time, the AfD opponents were more widely divided into different parties, said Jung. The heads of the opinion research institutes Infratest dimap and Insa made similar statements.

Prien: Abolishing compulsory schooling would be a catastrophe

Federal Education Minister Karin Prien is strictly against the abolition of compulsory schooling called for by the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt. “Giving up compulsory schooling would be a socio-political catastrophe,” said the CDU politician to the German Press Agency. Instead, from the minister’s point of view, “we should think more about mandatory approaches in daycare”.

In its program for the state elections this Sunday, the AfD advocates freedom of choice between school and home education under the heading “Compulsory education instead of compulsory schooling”. Children who are educated at home should take central exams every six months.

From Prien's point of view, that would be the wrong approach. “I consider compulsory schooling to be one of the great achievements of the modern constitutional state,” said the minister. "Children need school as a place to learn and live. Children who don't go to school are at risk of significant psychological impairments." People from different backgrounds meet at school; they are places of integration and social interaction. “People already move far too much in their bubbles,” said Prien.

The state in no way forces children to attend state schools. Rather, parents could opt for private alternatives with different concepts, for example church or Montessori schools. However, there is state supervision and common rules for these schools.

Prien also said: “I believe that mandatory attendance at daycare and additional educational opportunities in daycare a year before school are absolutely necessary for those children who we identify as needing support.” The compulsory daycare year for everyone now announced in Baden-Württemberg would be a variant, she added. “But at least children with special needs should be in daycare in the last year before school.”

“logo!” person responsible defends interview with AfD top candidate

ZDF defended an interview in the “logo!” children’s news with the AfD’s top candidate for the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund. "In the end, we are not guided by the question of what shitstorm is threatening, but rather by our mission: Children need reliable information in order to be able to form their own opinions. Even when it becomes uncomfortable," wrote Constanze Knuckles, head of "logo!" news at ZDF on Thursday evening in a post on the LinkedIn career network.

In the "logo!" program on the children's channel of ARD and ZDF (Kika) on September 3rd, the former state student representative in Saxony-Anhalt, Lucienne Balke, interviewed Siegmund and the incumbent Prime Minister, Sven Schulze (CDU). The decision to interview Siegmund in a children's program as a representative of a party that is classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony-Anhalt was sharply criticized on social networks. The interview lasted almost 30 minutes.

Willingmann: The economic situation is better than described in the election campaign

SPD top candidate Armin Willingmann has called for less pessimism with regard to the situation in Saxony-Anhalt. The economic situation is “perhaps not as dramatic” as many people perceive it to be, he said in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. During the election campaign, the impression was consistently given that everything was collapsing, he criticized. That is not the case.

"We have problems, like other countries. We are currently integrated into a global political framework. There is little we can do about it, but we have to take a stand against it."

SPD top candidate Armin Willingmann

Willingmann also emphasized that there are positive forecasts for Saxony-Anhalt. “When it comes to economic growth, we actually have a doubling of the previous forecast this year.” That is light at the end of the tunnel. “Let’s look there and not so often in the rearview mirror,” said the SPD politician.

Armin Willingmann. Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa

Significantly more attacks on journalists

Before the state elections, attacks on journalists and obstructions to reporting increased. According to the German Journalists' Union (DJU), more than 30 incidents were registered in connection with AfD events, affecting almost 50 journalists, TV teams and political influencers.

The DJU, part of the Verdi union, says it has been monitoring the situation since the beginning of May. It was said that 25 of the incidents occurred in the hot phase of the election campaign in the past three weeks alone. The spectrum ranges from verbal defamation and targeted obstruction of work to stalking and physical attacks. According to the professional association, the escalation largely came from right-wing or right-wing extremist streamers and media activists who dominated the AfD events environment. “This makes the situation more explosive than it has been in the entire past year,” said Lucas Munzke from the DJU. For comparison: In the statistics of the journalist organization Reporters Without Borders, there were five cases in Saxony-Anhalt in 2025.

How do MDR employees deal with the AfD's announcement that it will cancel broadcasting contributions? Read this text:

What might a government look like?

At the end of the thematic blocks, the four men discuss the question of power. With what majority would the two top candidates form a government? Neither Schulze nor Siegmund wants to anticipate the election results. Siegmund would like a majority of more than two seats in parliament for his party in order to “make history”. Schulze, much more modest, does not want to form a government with either the AfD or the Left, but says he is still open to coalitions with everyone else. Unfortunately, the moderators don't ask how this can be achieved with the current survey results.

Schulze: “Don’t build castles in the air”

We continue in Halle with the topics of education and household. Schulze calls many of Siegmund's statements "unserious" and "unrealistic" - especially the expensive promises that the AfD makes without saying how it plans to finance free daycare places or school meals. The state of Saxony-Anhalt is in debt, as the moderators emphasize several times. Schulze points to external factors when it comes to debt and says: “We must not build castles in the air during the election campaign.” The challenger even agrees with him, but misses a “long-term plan for this country”.

Schulze shows the limits of state politics

What can a Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt actually decide is a recurring question in the election campaign. The AfD likes to stick to issues that actually belong to the federal government's area of ​​responsibility, but suggests inaction on the part of the state government. Siegmund wants to reduce fuel prices by reducing taxes and symbolically holds a fuel receipt into the camera. There isn't much left for Schulze other than to explain to his competitor again that he is running for the office of Prime Minister - and what that means for the implementation of his political agenda.

Siegmund wants more deportations

“Everything is possible” when it comes to the issue of deportation, says Siegmund, and he also likes to use the popular statement among his party colleagues “until the runways glow.” CDU Prime Minister Schulze counters that this is not an issue in state politics and that the federal government has already adopted a number of stricter measures. However, he avoids the question of how Siegmund wants to get states around the world to accept deported asylum seekers from Germany.

About “foreign doctors” who don’t speak German

It didn't take long for the moderators to direct the discussion to the AfD's favorite topic, immigration. A discussion ensues between Schulze and Siegmund about what “foreign culture” – a word from the AfD’s election program – should mean and how “foreign doctors and nurses” fit into the AfD concept. Siegmund repeatedly raises the question of how a doctor who doesn't speak German should treat a patient. Here it might have been good for the moderators to check the facts directly to see whether there are actually a significant number of them in Magdeburg or Halle an der Saale.

What can be done about the shortage of skilled workers?

The first block of topics is the economic situation in the state and, above all, the labor shortage complained of by business associations. AfD candidate Siegmund wants to dismantle the administration so that more employees are available to the private sector again. He also wants to bring Germans who have emigrated abroad to Saxony-Anhalt - and at the same time prevent all those who are also drawn abroad from implementing their plan. CDU man Schulze traditionally relies on immigration into the labor market, regardless of where from. And once again promotes his party's achievements: an already significantly reduced unemployment rate.

Candidates set their topics - Siegmund wants to realign the Office for the Protection of the Constitution

The duel between the top candidates Sven Schulze (CDU) and Ulrich Siegmund (AfD) begins with the moderators Michael Bock, deputy editor-in-chief of the Volksstimme, and Hagen Eichler, state parliament correspondent for the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, with a short introduction of the candidates and the task for them to complete three sentences led by the moderators. Not an easy task for politicians who usually prefer to end a sentence with a short monologue. But important keywords do come up. AfD man Siegmund would like to “speak the language of the people again” and “return Saxony-Anhalt’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution to its actual basic task of getting criminals, terrorists and violent criminals out of traffic, for example before they go to Christmas markets, and no longer fighting the opposition.” The Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies his party as definitely right-wing extremist, which the AfD repeatedly denounces as unjustified. CDU Prime Minister Schulze wants to keep the pension at 63 despite the Bundestag decision and also wants to “deliver instead of babble”.

Anna Schimpp

Another duel between top candidates Schulze and Siegmund

At 1:30 p.m. the top candidates Sven Schulze (CDU) and Ulrich Siegmund (AfD) will face each other again in the election campaign. The duel is organized by the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (MZ) and the Volksstimme and can be followed online in the live stream. Readers of MZ and Volksstimme were able to send questions to the top candidates in advance.

Last Wednesday, CDU Prime Minister Schulze and his challenger Siegmund met in a TV debate on the MDR program “Fakt ist!” each other. At the beginning of the duel, moderator Gunnar Breske noted that the tone was “very rough”.

“The people you surround yourself with are very dangerous, very extreme people.”

Sven Schulze (CDU)

Schulze's statement that the AfD man Siegmund surrounded himself with "very dangerous" people followed the discussion about the description of politicians as "flat-nose pliers". AfD leader Alice Weidel described the members of the federal government as such. The federal leaders of the parties remained a topic of discussion.

Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Schulze described his opponent Siegmund as Weidel's puppet. But challenger Siegmund may also have hit a sore spot when he asked his counterpart about the unpopular Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). The debate moved towards more objective topics, especially in the second half. In addition to the economy and education, the controversial topic of migration was also discussed.

This is how the last TV duel between Schulze and Siegmund went on MDR:

Anna Schimpp

SPD Interior Minister Maier: AfD Interior Minister would be a “blatant security risk”

Thuringia's Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD) warns of negative consequences of a possible AfD interior minister in the neighboring state of Saxony-Anhalt. Maier told the editorial network Germany (RND):

“If an AfD interior minister were to come into office in Saxony-Anhalt, in my view it would be a blatant security risk for the Federal Republic.”

Georg Maier (SPD)

An interior minister of the party, which is classified as right-wing extremist in some East German federal states, would then have access to highly secret information, “for example in the area of counter-espionage, but also right-wing extremism”.