Election in Saxony-Anhalt: Germany Faces a Blue Turning Point

Ulrich Siegmund arrived at the polling station on the light-blue Simson Schwalbe moped he had repeatedly used during the campaign. The East German motorcycle, with his wife seated behind him, waited outside a school in Tangermünde as journalists and AfD supporters gathered for what the article describes as a potentially historic night.

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extremist

An AfD victory in Saxony-Anhalt would not be the first time the far-right party had won a German state election. It achieved that result in Thuringia two years earlier. Yet the vote was being treated as a break with the past because Germany had spent weeks debating what would happen if the party came to power in a state.

The Saxony-Anhalt branch has been classified as “extremist” by Germany’s domestic intelligence service for three years. Officials compiled statements by AfD representatives who sought to draw a line between people they regard as “real” Germans and others they call “passport Germans” because of their origin, religion or worldview. The officials said that approach violated Article 1 of Germany’s constitution, which states: “Human dignity is inviolable. To respect and protect it is the duty of all state authority.”

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real Germans

German judges ruled, after legal challenges from the AfD, that the Interior Ministry officials’ assessment was legally defensible. That history helps explain the alarm surrounding the election. The article says the party’s supporters view it as right-conservative, while its opponents see it as a threat. Both sides nevertheless describe the state election as historic.

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passport Germans

Rather than issuing only an election platform, the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt prepared a governing program. The party says it wants power alone, according to leading candidate Siegmund and other senior officials, leaving no immediate interest in a political compromise with the CDU. The 258-page document is titled “The State First.” Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, who is monitored individually by the domestic intelligence service because of his extremism, played a major role in writing it.

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The State First