Saxony-Anhalt campaign: SPD members are asked to say only good things about the AfD and Left

The AfD leads all polls in Saxony-Anhalt by a wide margin and could appoint a state premier for the first time. The party’s state organization is classified by the state intelligence agency as definitively far-right, but its campaign events still resemble folk festivals.

Top candidate Ulrich Siegmund spends hours taking selfies and cannot fulfill every request for an autograph. Meanwhile, the other parties are so focused on fighting the AfD that they have little strength left to explain their differences from one another.

The series visits events held by the six relevant parties: the AfD, CDU, Left, SPD, Greens and BSW. It travels through Magdeburg, Osterwieck, Halle, Klötze, Schierke, Dessau and Haldensleben, meeting both experienced speakers and ordinary campaigners.

The reporters ask each person what good they can say about the political competition. The experiment produces poisoned compliments, surprising common ground and repeated failures. No participant speaks on behalf of an entire party.

The SPD has created a portal where members can independently post campaign events, organized by location, for people who want to help. In Haldensleben, SPD state election candidate Philipp Morgner hosted former traffic-light coalition labor minister Hubertus Heil for a “citizens’ dialogue.” Morgner did not rent a venue because organizers feared nobody would attend if the SPD issued the invitation. Heil, Morgner and a small group of supporters instead walked through the pedestrian zone handing out flyers and looking for dialogue.