Özdemir: Saxony-Anhalt’s election will decide whether the state remains sovereign

Cem Özdemir framed the Saxony-Anhalt state election as a question of who will make decisions in the eastern German state. If the AfD governed alone, he warned, outside powers could gain influence over its political direction.

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The question is whether Saxony-Anhalt will remain sovereign, whether decisions about what happens here will continue to be made here, or whether people will have to seek approval from Mr Putin, Mr Trump, Mr Xi or Mr Erdogan.

“The question is whether Saxony-Anhalt will remain sovereign, whether decisions about what happens here will continue to be made here, or whether people will have to seek approval from Mr Putin, Mr Trump, Mr Xi or Mr Erdogan,” Özdemir told the German Press Agency at the Greens’ final campaign event in Halle. He said Germany and Europe’s sovereignty were also on the ballot.

The Baden-Württemberg premier again called for proceedings to ban parts of the AfD. He said authorities should seriously examine whether the party’s wing around Björn Höcke violates the principles of Germany’s Basic Law. The same scrutiny, he said, should apply to other parts of the party that follow that ideology.

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The sovereignty of Germany and Europe is also at stake in this election.

Özdemir argued that the earlier NPD ban case did not fail because the party was considered compatible with the constitution, but because it was too insignificant to endanger democracy. “You cannot say that about the AfD now,” he said. At the same time, he called for self-criticism among democratic parties and said they must ask what they had done wrong as the AfD’s election results continued to rise.

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You cannot say that about the AfD now.