{"id":672356,"date":"2026-09-04T14:16:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T14:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/672356\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T14:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T14:16:21","slug":"mass-deportations-euro-exit-and-russian-gas-the-afds-plan-for-power-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/672356\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass deportations, euro exit and Russian gas: the AfD\u2019s plan for power \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saxony-Anhalt knows a thing or two about trouble. An hour southwest of Berlin<\/a>, the people in this federal state, even before it even existed as one, knew how to shake things up.<\/p>\n

Five centuries ago it was Martin Luther<\/a>, a renegade monk whose challenge to church corruption triggered a Reformation rupture, splitting western Christianity.<\/p>\n

And a century ago the Bauhaus<\/a> design school chucked out the chintz of 19th century home design, introducing an angular new world of sleek glass and steel tubing furniture \u2013 until a brutal Nazi rollback.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the 2.1 million people of Saxony-Anhalt have an explosive choice when they elect a new state government: hand power to the far-right Alternative for Germany<\/a> (AfD) \u2013 a postwar political watershed \u2013 or give the established parties one more chance.<\/p>\n

Final polls put the AfD riding high on 43 per cent, within shouting distance of an absolute majority in the Magdeburg state parliament.<\/p>\n

Limping far behind, in second place on 22 per cent, is the outgoing centre-right Christian Democratic Union<\/a> (CDU) that has ruled the state for nearly a quarter century.<\/p>\n

Visiting heated gatherings across the state in the last weeks, the common denominator in the air has been the whiff of political cordite.<\/p>\n

\"ElectionElection posters for political parties in Magdeburg, eastern Germany. Photograph: Ronny Hartmann\/AFP\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Take the pretty town of Wittenberg, where Martin Luther kicked off what became the Reformation in 1517.<\/p>\n

In a former department store turned community centre, locals have gathered to discuss the choice ahead but within minutes, the mood is tense and charged.<\/p>\n

Trying to keep the calm is local businessman Carsten Franke, a Wittenberg native and director of the SKW chemicals plant, a large employer in the town.<\/p>\n

For him, the upcoming election is a referendum on the post-unification era and will be decided by whether Saxony-Anhalt voters fall into a trap laid by the AfD: tapping a post-unification victim narrative in eastern Germany<\/a> for political gain.<\/p>\n

Franke points out the window at the renovated Wittenberg market square and pretty historic streets. Without German unification in 1990 and at least \u20ac2 trillion in investment, all that, he says, would now look like a war film set.<\/p>\n

Ex-chancellor Helmut Kohl\u2019s promise of \u201cblossoming landscapes\u201d has come to pass in many regions across the former eastern Germany, he says, including here in Saxony-Anhalt. \u201cThere are posters hanging in Berlin advertising how nice it is here now, we can be proud of how we rolled up our sleeves and worked to build all this up,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe historic market square in Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt. Photograph: Emmanuele Contini\/NurPhoto via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Without mentioning the AfD by name, he warns that outside investment in the city and surrounding state could just as easily dry up again: \u201cAnd we are on a sure-fire path to destroying all that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local woman Mechtild contradicts him. She is convinced that many negative characteristics of East Germany are back \u2013 and that the AfD is the best antidote to this.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then I found myself in the claws of the Stasi [secret police] and lost my job,\u201d she says. \u201cI see all sorts of Stasi methods again in Germany today, I don\u2019t think this is even a real democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kathrin, a 52-year-old local woman and city guide, agrees that there is much people can be proud of in Wittenberg and Saxony-Anhalt.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut barricaded pedestrian areas and \u2019knife-free zone\u2019 signs \u2013 that is a Germany I don\u2019t to live in, something has to change,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have to fight to rebuild our economy and put ourselves first for a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Change is what was on offer days earlier on Wittenberg market square from charismatic local AfD leader Ulrich Siegmund. The 35-year-old political TikTok star drew a huge crowd of supporters for a \u201ccitizens\u2019 dialogue\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"UlrichUlrich Siegmund, the AfD’s main candidate in the Saxony-Anhalt state election, addresses supporters during a campaign event. Photograph: Ronny Hartmann\/AFP via Getty Images \"UlrichUlrich Siegmund poses for photos with AfD supporters. Photograph: Ronny Hartmann\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

There was little dialogue. Instead, everyone who waited in a lengthy queue got a quick word, a selfie and an autograph.<\/p>\n

Siegmund\u2019s address to the crowd was brief and hit three main points: nostalgia, confirmation and revolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want our good old safe Germany back,\u201d he said, a nod to a decade of violent attacks, many involving asylum seekers. \u201cI want everyone here at this event to go home with a good feeling that what we are doing here is the right thing to do. That we are on the right side and that remember this: we are the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

People in Saxony-Anhalt are not used to hearing such feel-good political rhetoric.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ulrich Siegmund: AfD\u2019s scent specialist smells victoryOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

This is one of Germany\u2019s poorest and most conservative states, while a three-decade departure of its young people has made it one of the oldest regions in the country. In national polls, the AfD is Germany\u2019s most popular political party with about 28 per cent support with a nativist conservative programme with populist and neoliberal components. It embraces the traditional nuclear family, promises mass deportations and a crackdown on asylum, Islam and what it calls \u201cclimate madness\u201d.<\/p>\n

At European level, the AfD wants to ditch both the euro and military support for Ukraine, lift economic sanctions against Moscow to restart Russian energy deliveries.<\/p>\n

Here in Saxony-Anhalt, Siegmund has promised a cultural shift to allow home schooling, cancel public television funding the AfD views as biased, and defund Nazi concentration camp memorials.<\/p>\n

He has supercharged the Saxony-Anhalt AfD to beyond 40 per cent in polls by going beyond standard populist tropes \u2013 of corrupt elites and criminal foreigners \u2013 to reframe locals\u2019 economic and emotional vulnerabilities as strengths.<\/p>\n

Some 43 per cent of eastern Germans feel like second-class citizens, according to a 2023 poll, mirroring current AfD poll numbers.<\/p>\n

In an AfD-led Saxony-Anhalt, the party\u2019s posters promise \u201canything is possible\u201d with Siegmund as political redeemer.<\/p>\n

\"AA young girl at an AfD campaign event in Haldensleben, eastern Germany. Photograph: Ronny Hartmann\/AFP\/Getty Images \"AA participant in a counter-demonstration against the far-right AfD waves a flag that reads \u2018fed up with Nazis\u2019 in Haldensleben, eastern Germany. Photograph: Ronny Hartmann\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

German sociologist Steffen Mau, himself born in East Germany, says the AfD has \u201cstuck a chord\u201d with voters in Saxony-Anhalt by tapping into this feeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you say to people \u2018you are not second class, you are avant-garde\u2019, you flip this inferiority complex,\u201d says Mau.<\/p>\n

A second key to its success is tapping into a different understanding of democracy in eastern Germany.<\/p>\n

Studies show that those who grew up in the former West Germany are more likely to back an idea of democracy based on electoral legitimacy, checks and balances, procedure, institutions and minority protections.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut many easterners view democracy more in terms of absolute majority rule,\u201d he says, \u201cand that democracy is when those people up there do what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0AI software that generates \u2018rage bait\u2019 developed by Germany\u2019s far-right AfDOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

That allows the AfD to ramp up the \u201ccorrupt elites\u201d populism, drawing further strength from already chronically weak political opponents.<\/p>\n

Saxony-Anhalt\u2019s ruling CDU, in particular, has manoeuvred itself into an election bind by refusing to co-operate not just with the AfD but also with the third-largest party, the post-communist Left Party (Linke).<\/p>\n

Saxony-Anhalt\u2019s jovial CDU leader Sven Schulze is far more popular than his party, but he has been fighting an uphill battle after only taking over as state prime minister last January. Hobbling his re-election campaign still further is the state\u2019s proximity to Berlin and the unpopular CDU chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"SvenSven Schulze, premier of Saxony-Anhalt and member of the Christian Democratic Union, taking part in a TV debate with Ulrich Siegmund. Photograph: Hendrik Schmidt\/Pool\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Most of Merz\u2019s election appearances in Saxony-Anhalt, the ones that weren\u2019t quietly cancelled, have been closed-door affairs.<\/p>\n

The hope is to throttle tensions over Berlin politics, in particular a pension reform plan that is unpopular in eastern Germany \u2013 including with Schulze.<\/p>\n

What is the 47-year-old politician\u2019s main worry if the AfD takes power in Saxony-Anhalt? That it will become an \u201cexperimental field for this party to isolate, destabilise and damage Saxony-Anhalt\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want that Saxony-Anhalt becomes an island in Germany with which no one wants anything to do with,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is a party that wants to leave the euro, a party that would cut off Germany from the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many uncertainties surround Sunday\u2019s election outcome, including the performance of smaller parties. Beyond CDU infighting, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens are on the extinction list with just 7 and 5 per cent support respectively.<\/p>\n

A likely outcome after Sunday\u2019s polls close is that the AfD falls short of an absolute majority, plunging Saxony-Anhalt into a period of ungovernability.<\/p>\n

In that scenario, one of the CDU\u2019s main election slogans in Saxony-Anhalt \u2013 \u201cthe centre will hold!\u201d \u2013 will be put to a final test.<\/p>\n

If Sunday\u2019s result brings political deadlock, it could fall to Schulze to act.<\/p>\n

One outcome could see him head a minority government with the SPD and Greens, if they are re-elected, and calling unofficially on support from the Left Party in opposition.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A banned song in Germany has become a rallying cry against a far-right surgeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case he will need political kid gloves,\u201d says Marc Rath, editor of the local Mitteldeutsche Zeitung daily. \u201cIt will be a real stress test for the CDU here to find modes of co-operation not in use anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back at the Wittenberg public meeting, the mood is turning sour. German writer Lukas Rietzschel \u2013 dubbed recently the \u201cvoice of eastern German millennials\u201d by a Swiss newspaper \u2013 says he is \u201ca bit overwhelmed\u201d by the atmosphere in the room, and outside, in advance of Sunday\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could get the impression that this country is about to collapse yet, for all the challenges, so much works just fine,\u201d says the 32-year-old. \u201cBut I guess if you think that everything is about to collapse, then it is only consequential that you vote for those who want to change everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saxony-Anhalt knows a thing or two about trouble. An hour southwest of Berlin, the people in this federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[113297,25123,9,10,113296,18,13,14,6622,6621,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-672356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-afd-alternative-for-germany","tag-berlin","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-christian-democratic-union","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117213200504782038","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}