How the AfD wants to reshape Saxony-Anhalt, and Germany

The Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is classified as extremist in Saxony-Anhalt, but it continues to attract voters dissatisfied with the traditional parties. Ahead of Sunday’s state election, the party has laid out its program in a 258-page document filled with proposals that would sharply redirect the state and Germany.

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end illegal, culturally alien and hostile mass migration

On migration, the AfD says Germany must end what it calls “illegal, culturally alien and hostile mass migration.” It promises a deportation and remigration offensive, aimed not only at removing foreign-born migrants but also at encouraging Germans who have emigrated to return. The party gives particular attention to Ukrainians, saying they should not be treated as war refugees. People fleeing eastern Ukraine, it argues, could settle in western Ukraine instead of Germany.

The platform would create schooling tailored to refugee children’s supposedly temporary stay in Germany, including separate classes. Their teachers should, where possible, also be refugees. The AfD wants to expand Russian-language studies and school exchanges with Russia, arguing that the established parties pursue an unnecessarily “anti-Russian” policy that “divides Europe.” It also wants curricula to focus more heavily on the 19th century and presents Otto von Bismarck’s unification of Germany as an “inspiration and role model.”

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deportation and remigration offensive

The same Russia-friendly approach shapes the party’s position on sanctions. It says sanctions imposed by Germany and the European Union harm the state’s trade and calls for removing measures against Russia, Belarus and Iran. The platform refers to the war in Ukraine as an “encounter,” or dispute, rather than a war.

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divides Europe

On energy, the AfD describes wind and solar power as unreliable and damaging to the landscape. It promises a moratorium on new wind farms in Saxony-Anhalt and would bar solar installations in “German cultural landscapes,” while allowing them on roofs to support local energy security. The party calls the energy transition a failure, supports continued use of polluting lignite and refers, in broad terms, to bringing back nuclear power. It also says it would pursue these issues in the Bundesrat, Germany’s upper house, where the states are represented.

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inspiration and role model