{"id":77555,"date":"2026-08-23T18:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T18:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/77555\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T18:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T18:10:09","slug":"germanys-afd-eyes-saxony-anhalt-win-as-first-step-toward-federal-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/77555\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany’s AfD Eyes Saxony-Anhalt Win as First Step Toward Federal Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

BERLIN, Aug 23 (Reuters) – Germany’s far-right \u2060Alternative \u2060for Germany (AfD) is banking \u2060on a breakthrough in next month’s state election to build \u200bmomentum for a future national victory, the party’s co-leader Alice Weidel said on \u200cSunday.<\/p>\n

“We will form the government \u200cin Saxony-Anhalt,” Weidel said in an interview with public broadcaster ZDF, referring \u2060to the \u2060eastern German state that votes on September 6.<\/p>\n

While the party’s \u200blead candidate in the state has stated the AfD’s aim to govern alone there, Weidel went further, expressing confidence the party will secure the necessary majority to govern \u200bin the state alone.<\/p>\n

A recent Infratest dimap poll shows AfD with 41% \u2060support, \u2060well ahead of 24% \u2060for Chancellor \u200bFriedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democrats CDU.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite its strong showing in some past regional \u200belections, AfD has yet \u2060to enter a state or federal government because all other major parties have ruled out cooperation with it.<\/p>\n

Weidel said the CDU’s refusal to work with the AfD \u2014 a policy known in Germany as the “firewall” \u2014 was weakening the conservatives \u2060and would eventually put her party in a position to govern nationally.<\/p>\n

“The \u2060CDU will never win another federal election,” she said.<\/p>\n

The AfD has long argued that the “firewall” was undemocratic, while the CDU says the policy is necessary because AfD poses a threat to Germany’s fundamental principles and its constitutional order.<\/p>\n

The AfD also leads national voting-intention polls, though with a smaller margin. The latest Politbarometer survey by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen put the party at 27%, compared with 22% for the CDU\/CSU \u2060bloc.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saxony-Anhalt is the first of three state elections in September. Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania vote on September 20.<\/p>\n

Weidel has also repeated the party’s call for a tougher immigration policy and Germany’s withdrawal from the \u200bEuropean system of passport-free travel to better secure its borders.<\/p>\n

(Reporting \u200bby Maria MartinezEditing by Tomasz Janowski)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.<\/p>\n

Photos You Should See: August 2026<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN, Aug 23 (Reuters) – Germany’s far-right \u2060Alternative \u2060for Germany (AfD) is banking \u2060on a breakthrough in next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[982,151,5,4416,46],"class_list":["post-77555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-collections-world","tag-europe","tag-germany","tag-reuters","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77555","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=77555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}