Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) appeared poised to sweep elections in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, potentially marking a major political realignment after the EU’s industrial powerhouse spent recent years flirting with socialism and open-border policies.
Despite its past support for Nazism, The New York Times seemed less enthusiastic about the new election, which it claimed “would propel a far-right party into power for the first time since World War II.”
Initial exit polls on Sunday projected that AfD would win around 44.4 percent of the vote, giving it somewhere between 39 and 41 seats in the Bundestag, but just shy of the 42 needed to win full control of the German parliament.
Nonetheless, the groundswell movement, which saw more than 80 percent turnout after massive campaign rallies for 35-year-old leading AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund, gave the party a clear mandate.
“We have made history in this country,” Siegmund said, as reported by Reuters.
Immigration became a key issue, with Germany having become one of many European nations dealing with the fallout of policies that admitted droves of North African Muslims under former Chancellor Angela Merkel, a member of the centrist Christian Democratic Union of Germany, and her left-wing successor, Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party.
Current Chancellor Friedrich Merz, elected last year, generally supports tighter immigration policies, but his rhetoric has been largely in reaction to the growing outrage that has helped to elevate AfD onto the main stage in the German political debate.
“Naturalization should only be the last step at the end of an integration process into our workforce, society and constitutional order,” he told The Telegraph. “We cannot accept that people live in a parallel society and want to be German citizens at the same time.”
Merz’s plan, however, which includes language requirements and a ban on dual citizenship, would seem to stop short of any serious effort to remove foreign nationals already in the country.
Although noncitizens reportedly made up less than 17 percent of the country, recent statistics from the German government indicated that they were responsible for 53 percent of Germany’s 751 recorded gang rapes in 2025. Of the victims, 619 (80 percent) were German.
An Islamic terror attack during a Berlin gay pride event in July further bolstered the sense of urgency for German officials to restore a sense of public safety.
AfD, which further seeks to restore ties with Russia, quit the euro and promote German patriotism, has seen top-level public officials try to ban it, despite — or, perhaps, because of — its growing popularity.
Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil, co-leader of the center-left Social Democratic Party, wrote recently in Die Zeit that the AfD party should be outlawed, citing a longstanding government policy of refusing to cooperate with it.
“It is intended to prevent enemies of the constitution from gaining political power,” Klingbeil said of the policy. “It protects the dignity of every individual and, with it, our liberal democracy. For me and for my party, this is non-negotiable.”
But a German court rebuffed attempts by the country’s intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, to designate AfD a “right-wing extremist group” and to place it on a government watchlist.
Despite its past support for Nazism, The New York Times seemed less enthusiastic about the new election, which it claimed “would propel a far-right party into power for the first time since World War II.”
Initial exit polls on Sunday projected that AfD would win around 44.4 percent of the vote, giving it somewhere between 39 and 41 seats in the Bundestag, but just shy of the 42 needed to win full control of the German parliament.
Nonetheless, the groundswell movement, which saw more than 80 percent turnout after massive campaign rallies for 35-year-old leading AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund, gave the party a clear mandate.
“We have made history in this country,” Siegmund said, as reported by Reuters.
Immigration became a key issue, with Germany having become one of many European nations dealing with the fallout of policies that admitted droves of North African Muslims under former Chancellor Angela Merkel, a member of the centrist Christian Democratic Union of Germany, and her left-wing successor, Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party.
Current Chancellor Friedrich Merz, elected last year, generally supports tighter immigration policies, but his rhetoric has been largely in reaction to the growing outrage that has helped to elevate AfD onto the main stage in the German political debate.
“Naturalization should only be the last step at the end of an integration process into our workforce, society and constitutional order,” he told The Telegraph. “We cannot accept that people live in a parallel society and want to be German citizens at the same time.”
Merz’s plan, however, which includes language requirements and a ban on dual citizenship, would seem to stop short of any serious effort to remove foreign nationals already in the country.
Although noncitizens reportedly made up less than 17 percent of the country, recent statistics from the German government indicated that they were responsible for 53 percent of Germany’s 751 recorded gang rapes in 2025. Of the victims, 619 (80 percent) were German.
An Islamic terror attack during a Berlin gay pride event in July further bolstered the sense of urgency for German officials to restore a sense of public safety.
AfD, which further seeks to restore ties with Russia, quit the euro and promote German patriotism, has seen top-level public officials try to ban it, despite — or, perhaps, because of — its growing popularity.
Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil, co-leader of the center-left Social Democratic Party, wrote recently in Die Zeit that the AfD party should be outlawed, citing a longstanding government policy of refusing to cooperate with it.
“It is intended to prevent enemies of the constitution from gaining political power,” Klingbeil said of the policy. “It protects the dignity of every individual and, with it, our liberal democracy. For me and for my party, this is non-negotiable.”
But a German court rebuffed attempts by the country’s intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, to designate AfD a “right-wing extremist group” and to place it on a government watchlist.
