What AfD’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt could mean for Jewish life

The AfD’s historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt has put Germany’s Holocaust remembrance policy and Jewish life in the state under new scrutiny. The far-right party won 43.8% of the vote, more than twice the Christian Democratic Union’s 17.2%, but it still fell short of controlling the state parliament.

The AfD won 39 of the legislature’s 83 seats, leaving it three seats short of an absolute majority. Its top candidate, 35-year-old Ulrich Siegmund, called the result a “mandate to govern.” That claim does not settle the question of power, however. The minister-president will be whoever can secure the required majority in parliament, and a small party critical of Israel could hold the balance of power.

Siegmund has helped present the radical party in a modern, approachable style. He appears in social-media videos, shares family celebrations and poses with voters. His campaign also embraced mass rides on Simson mopeds, a symbol of East German pride. But Simson was founded by a Jewish family whose property the Nazis confiscated. The founders’ descendants protested the AfD’s use of the brand, calling its political appropriation a mockery of their family history. Siegmund continued using the mopeds.

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mandate to govern

In November 2023, Siegmund attended a meeting of AfD representatives and right-wing extremists near Potsdam where Austrian far-right activist Martin Sellner presented his concept of “remigration.” The proposal applied not only to asylum seekers but also to German citizens of immigrant origin considered insufficiently assimilated. Siegmund presented his own “Vision 2026” plan for bringing the AfD to power in Saxony-Anhalt at the meeting.

After an investigative report revealed the gathering, Siegmund lost his position as chair of the state parliament’s social affairs committee, but his political career continued. He also faced criticism in 2025 after declining to say whether he considered the Holocaust the most horrific crime in human history. Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, called the response a relativization of the Shoah. At AfD events, the host would shout “Sieg” and the audience would answer “Mund,” echoing Siegmund’s surname and drawing further attention to the party’s presentation of its candidate.

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remigration