Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania election: What you need to know

Manuela Schwesig is running again for the SPD as Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania heads into a closely watched state election. The campaign is already in full swing, with the parties presenting sharply different priorities and governing choices.

The SPD has placed the economy, families and democracy at the centre of its programme. It wants to use the two billion euros allocated to the state from a federal special fund for infrastructure. The party also promises investment in education and social security, continued free childcare and one billion euros for schools.

Its democratic agenda includes a qualified public consultation process intended to give citizens more influence. The SPD also plans major investment in fire services and presents voluntary work and social cohesion as further priorities. Schwesig, 52, has led the state government and the SPD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since 2017. She previously served as federal minister for family affairs.

The AfD is putting forward what it calls a “blue turning point” across the economy, family policy, education and security. Leif-Erik Holm, a 56-year-old Bundestag member and the party’s economic policy spokesman, is standing directly against Schwesig in her constituency. Enrico Schult, who entered the state parliament in 2021, holds first place on the AfD’s state list.

The AfD programme calls for tighter limits on migration, including a possible admission freeze and the “remigration” of people from Syria living in the state. It proposes state-run immigration detention facilities, a return police force and a task force targeting foreign offenders. Asylum seekers would receive only benefits in kind, under what the party calls the “bed, bread, soap principle.” The party also opposes inclusion, wants preparatory classes for pupils it considers insufficiently proficient in German, and seeks to end fee-free childcare.

Further proposals include looser weapons rules and reduced documentation requirements for police officers. The AfD wants to return to nuclear power, repair the Nord Stream pipeline to resume Russian gas imports, abolish the state media treaty and end NDR reporting in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The prospect of the AfD becoming the strongest party leaves coalition options and the firewall against cooperation with it as central questions.