Polls: Germany’s AfD Scores a Landslide in Eastern State Election

Germany’s far-right AfD has won a major regional election in Saxony-Anhalt, securing at least 44% of the vote in exit polls from public broadcasters ARD and ZDF. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right CDU took 18.5%, although broadcasters cautioned that it was still too early to determine whether the AfD would win an absolute majority.

The party’s migration platform promises to remove as many migrants as possible who lack permanent residence permits, including by detaining more people before deportation. It describes this as an offensive campaign based on “deportation and remigration.” An AfD-led state government would also refuse people who entered illegally from a safe third country, act against churches that shelter migrants illegally in Germany and require asylum seekers to perform community service or risk losing benefits.

The party may not be able to carry out all those pledges. An analysis by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology found that 21 of the AfD’s 56 planned migration measures could be implemented only at national or European level.

The AfD wants to overhaul the state branch of Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the BfV, which has classified the Saxony-Anhalt branch as a right-wing extremist organization. It has accused the agency of political interference and has not ruled out abolishing the branch. The party also wants greater attention paid to left-wing extremism and proposes citizen patrols to supplement police work. Police unions oppose the idea, saying it would undermine the police monopoly on the legitimate use of force.

Siegmund has said one of his first actions in office would be to end the contract governing the regional public broadcaster. AfD politicians regularly accuse public broadcasters of bias, while media law experts say the proposal would probably conflict with the constitutional duty to provide comprehensive public broadcasting. In education, the party wants to end the ban on home schooling and the obligation to send children to school, but that would require a two-thirds parliamentary majority and could face further legal and constitutional barriers. It also promises to ban rainbow flags in schools, require use of the German flag and national anthem, end state funding for the School Against Racism initiative, and eventually reduce the focus on the Nazi period in history teaching.

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deportation and remigration