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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Saxony-Anhalt votes Sunday as AfD eyes chance to govern

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources Ongoing story
  • Saxony-Anhalt voters will elect a state government on Sunday, with polls giving the far-right AfD as much as 43 percent support.
  • An outright AfD majority could allow the party to govern the eastern German state, while analysts say a minority government remains more likely.
  • Demonstrators gathered in Magdeburg against the far right, while AfD leaders held a campaign event for candidate Ulrich Siegmund.

Saxony-Anhalt’s election on Sunday could give Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, its first chance to govern a federal state if it wins an outright majority.

The most favorable opinion polls put AfD support at 43 percent, well ahead of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, whose regional premier is Sven Schulze, at up to 23 percent. The Left is polling at no more than 13 percent. About 1.7 million voters are expected at the ballot box.

Fascism kills.

· Demonstrators in MagdeburgThe slogan appeared during an anti-far-right march held before the election.

The prospect of an AfD victory brought demonstrations to Magdeburg on Saturday. Several hundred people gathered outside the central train station before marching through the state capital. Their messages included “Fascism kills.” A later diversity festival at Cathedral Square was expected to feature activists, musicians and cultural figures, including 92-year-old Holocaust survivor and author Henriette Kretz.

An absolute majority is possible.

· Alice Weidel and Tino ChrupallaThe AfD co-leaders expressed confidence in the party’s prospects in Saxony-Anhalt.

Leaders from the Left and the Greens were also expected at the event. Nearby, AfD brought together its lead candidate for state premier, Ulrich Siegmund, and the party’s co-leaders, Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel. Weidel and Chrupalla said on Thursday that “an absolute majority is possible.”

A regional AfD victory would be the party’s second after its success in Thuringia in 2024. The party is seeking to govern even as regional intelligence services monitor it as a “proven case” of right-wing extremism. Political scientist Wolfgang Schroeder of the University of Kassel said a minority government was more plausible because other parties would seek to prevent AfD from governing the first German state under its leadership.

Proven case

· Regional intelligence servicesThe phrase describes how the far-right AfD is monitored by the regional Interior Ministry’s intelligence services.

Schroeder attributed the party’s support, which exceeds 40 percent in some polling, to what he called Siegmund’s “positive populism.” The campaign presents “a positive vision” through slogans such as “everything is possible” and “save the region.”

Positive populism

· Wolfgang SchroederThe political scientist used the term to describe the appeal of AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund’s campaign.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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