AfD Candidate Siegmund Aims to Solve Skilled Labor Shortage Without Immigration

Ulrich Siegmund, the top candidate for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Saxony-Anhalt, has firmly rejected immigration as a means to combat the region's significant shortage of skilled workers. Responding to the challenge of filling 17,000 vacant positions, Siegmund stated emphatically at a recent forum that the solution would "certainly not come from abroad."

Siegmund criticized the prevailing approach, which he described as "always the only answer to this question," arguing instead that Germany must "manage it on its own strength." He proposed focusing on "sensible family policy" as a primary strategy and called for less bureaucracy and a more streamlined administration, alongside the adoption of new technologies.

When pressed on the timeline, acknowledging that a stronger family policy would yield results only in about 20 years, Siegmund referred to a "three-stage model" encompassing short-, medium-, and long-term measures. However, he did not elaborate on the specific actions planned to mitigate the acute shortage in the immediate future, leaving questions about the practical implementation of his strategy.