Photographer Luigi Toscano: The Far Right Must Not Govern

Photographer Luigi Toscano carried portraits of Holocaust survivors to Magdeburg Cathedral, saying a country must not be governed by a far-right party.

Toscano traveled from Mannheim, where he lives, to Magdeburg for the action. Working with members of the Omas gegen Rechts initiative, he displayed large portraits of survivors, including Margot Friedländer, who died in 2025.

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It simply cannot be that a country is governed by a far-right party.

“I have now met more than 600 Holocaust survivors. Almost every one of them told me: ‘Luigi, please make sure that this never happens again,’” Toscano told the German Press Agency.

He said he did not expect the action to change the minds of people who had decided to vote for the Alternative for Germany, or AfD. Instead, he wanted to set an example, take a stand and speak out. “I know that I will not change the minds of people who have decided to vote for the AfD with an action like this,” he told the Mannheimer Morgen before the event. “But I am trying to set an example, send a signal, take a stand and speak out.”

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I have now met more than 600 Holocaust survivors. Almost every one of them told me: ‘Luigi, please make sure that this never happens again.’

A recent Forschungsgruppe Wahlen poll for ZDF put the AfD, led by Ulrich Siegmund, at 41%, making it by far the strongest force. Siegmund has repeatedly said during the final stage of the campaign that he wants to govern alone and would not cooperate with other parties after the election.

Toscano, born in 1972 to Sicilian migrant workers, received UNESCO recognition and Germany’s Order of Merit for his project “Against Oblivion.” He called the strong AfD support in Saxony-Anhalt and eastern Germany a “strange phenomenon” and sharply criticized voters who, in his view, were moving toward danger despite having lived under a dictatorship.

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I know that I will not change the minds of people who have decided to vote for the AfD with an action like this. But I am trying to set an example, send a signal, take a stand and speak out.