After its historic triumph in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD now threatens to further shake up the German political scene in the elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. While thousands of people across the country take to the streets in protest, polls show that the far right still has strong momentum ahead of the September 20 vote.
At a protest near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, demonstrators held a rally in support of democracy and against the AfD. Police estimated that around 5,000 people had gathered, while organizers claimed there were more than 14,000.
Banners carried messages such as “Fascism is not an alternative,” “Stop the Nazi AfD: end racism and cuts to social benefits,” and “History is watching us.”
The protests came after the AfD won almost 44 percent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, the party’s best result ever in a state election. The Guardian reported that it was also the best result for a nationalist party in Germany since the Nazi era.
The AfD has thus continued its strong rise ahead of elections in two other German states – Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Jens-Christian Wagner, director of the memorial at the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald, said at the rally that the AfD’s result was “a disgrace that makes you furious and stunned.”
The AfD fell just short of an absolute majority, but Wagner warned that the party had moved closer to the possibility of taking power in Saxony-Anhalt, which would represent an unprecedented development for the German far right since World War II.
“This must not be accepted in silence,” Wagner said.
AfD candidate for premier of Saxony-Anhalt Ulrich Siegmund is currently just three parliamentary votes short of the support needed to form a government. His party is therefore counting on the possibility of winning over individual lawmakers from other parties.
Germany’s domestic intelligence service has classified the AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt branch as right-wing extremist since 2023, arguing that it poses a threat to democratic norms.
The protests were not held only in Berlin. Hundreds of people gathered in Potsdam, while rallies were also organized in Münster, Göttingen, Dresden, Aachen, Bamberg, Darmstadt and Halberstadt. In Halle, the second-largest city in Saxony-Anhalt, left-wing groups and civil society organizations organized a protest camp that has continued since election day.
Particular attention is now focused on the September 20 elections.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the AfD is leading the polls with around 35 percent support. However, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of state premier Manuela Schwesig has managed to significantly improve its ratings over the summer and now has more than 30 percent support.
The situation in Berlin is considerably more uncertain.
The German capital, which also has the status of a federal state, is currently governed by a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the SPD. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU has a narrow lead with around 20 percent support.
Right behind it are The Left, which has focused its campaign on rising housing costs, and the AfD. They are followed by the SPD and the Greens, which according to polls have around 15 percent support.
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The result in Saxony-Anhalt has further increased pressure on Chancellor Merz, whose unpopularity, according to The Guardian, was one of the factors that weighed on the CDU in the election.
Following the defeat, Merz said he intended to remain in office and continue with a package of economic and social reforms. His position is that the rise of the AfD can primarily be stopped by restarting Europe’s largest economy and reforming Germany’s social welfare system.
However, the SPD, the junior partner in the federal government, has signaled that it is prepared to abandon some of the most unpopular measures in an attempt to regain voters’ support.
Analysts warn that this dispute over the direction the government should take could further destabilize an already fragile governing coalition.
Thus, after its historic result in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD is entering the final stages of two more important election campaigns with strong momentum behind it. While opponents of the party are trying to mobilize voters through protests, the elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania could show whether the victory in Saxony-Anhalt was the peak of its rise or the beginning of a broader political earthquake in Germany.
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Source: Nova ; Foto: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa via AP
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