The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) unveiled an action plan on Saturday highlighting more immigration detention centres and a compulsory work scheme for asylum seekers as priorities if it comes to power in a German state election for the first time later this year.<\/p>\n
Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s candidate for premier in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, presented a programme for the party’s first 100 days in office at a congress in the state capital, Magdeburg.<\/p>\n
The anti-immigrant party has been polling well ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in Saxony-Anhalt ahead of the election on September 6, while also leading surveys in north-eastern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which votes two weeks later alongside Berlin.<\/p>\n
The AfD has never participated in a state coalition, as all other mainstream parties refuse working with it in a policy known as the “firewall.”<\/p>\n
But the latest survey last week showed the AfD on 41% in Saxony-Anhalt, which could be close to earning it an absolute majority in the state parliament, depending on how many minor parties miss out on the 5% threshold needed to win seats.<\/p>\n
This would allow the AfD to bypass the firewall and take control of a state government for the first time, and the party leadership on Saturday outlined their pledge to implement 10 key points immediately following a victory in September.<\/p>\n
Alongside expanding detention centres and work requirements for asylum seekers, the 100-day programme includes special classes for the children of asylum seekers and security guards at what it refers to as “problem schools.”<\/p>\n
The AfD also wants to terminate state broadcasting agreements, reduce funding for party-affiliated foundations and democracy programmes, and provide support for driving licences. The rainbow flag, a symbol of the LGBT+ community, would be banned; instead, the German national flag would be displayed in schools, the party said.<\/p>\n
“People want political change,” Siegmund said. “All the other parties are only concerned with us now; they have no positions of their own.” He said the AfD has breathed new life into politics.<\/p>\n
Experts have warned that the plans outlined in the 100-day programme would face significant legal and logistical hurdles.<\/p>\n
At the party congress, delegates re-elected Martin Reichardt as AfD state chairman with 191 votes in favour to 23 against. Reichardt has led the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt since 2018 and is a member of the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament.<\/p>\n
He recently found himself at the centre of a scandal after a podcast investigation alleged that he gave the Nazi salute in the presence of party colleagues. A photo taken in 2020 and shared by the Politico podcast “Inside the AfD” shows Reichardt extending his left arm. Several politicians subsequently called on the chairman to resign.<\/p>\n
The Saxony-Anhalt branch of the AfD is classified as a confirmed far-right extremist organization by the domestic intelligence services. The regional chapter has around 3,500 members.<\/p>\n
The state is currently governed by a coalition of the CDU, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Free Democrats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) unveiled an action plan on Saturday highlighting more immigration detention centres and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[452,718,24448,393,5,42521,42520,3849,42519,42522,3867,4070],"class_list":["post-52821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-afd","tag-asylum-seekers","tag-christian-democrats","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-immigration-detention-centres","tag-martin-reichardt","tag-saxony-anhalt","tag-state-capital","tag-state-coalition","tag-state-parliament","tag-ulrich-siegmund"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}