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

The AfD leads every poll in Saxony-Anhalt by a wide margin and could appoint a state premier for the first time. The possibility is especially charged because the state intelligence agency classifies the party’s state organization as definitively far-right.

Despite that classification, AfD campaign events resemble folk festivals, with top candidate Ulrich Siegmund spending hours taking selfies and still unable to meet all the requests for autographs. The other parties are concentrating so heavily on resisting the AfD that they are struggling to show voters how they differ from one another.

The series follows the six relevant parties in the campaign: the AfD, CDU, Left, SPD, Greens and BSW. It visits events in Magdeburg, Osterwieck, Halle, Klötze, Schierke, Dessau and Haldensleben, interviewing both practiced speakers and ordinary campaigners.

Each participant faces the same question: what good can they say about the political competition? The answers reveal poisoned compliments, unexpected common ground and repeated failures to find anything positive to say.

The Left held its event in the large hall of the Schwarzer Adler in Stendal, with Heidi Reichinnek appearing as the featured guest. The Bundestag Left parliamentary group leader did not speak with the reporters, but several state election candidates did. The article says the front between the Left and the AfD appeared less hardened at the local level.