Alternative for Germany won today’s election in Saxony-Anhalt by a landslide with 44.5 percent of the vote, nearly 24 percentage points more than in the 2021 election, exit polls showed.
Far behind the Alternative was the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which received just 18.5 percent, its lowest-ever result in the state and nearly 19 percentage points less than in the previous election, when it won by a wide margin.
The Left came in third with 9.5 percent, the Greens won nine percent, while the Social Democratic Party received just eight percent of the vote.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel welcomed the “historic” result, which gave the party a clear mandate to govern, but it is not yet clear whether it will be able to form a government, as all other parties have already announced that they will not enter into a coalition with the far-right Alternative.
What is the AfD’s policy?
AfD wants to drastically change the policies of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. What exactly do the party’s plans look like?
“Deport from the very first minute!” That is AfD’s main promise in Saxony-Anhalt in the event of an election victory. The goal is to deport as many illegal migrants as possible, “as much as is possible,” according to the election program.
When it comes to asylum policy, the party is announcing stricter measures at all levels. It wants more frequent use of pre-deportation detention, demands mandatory work for asylum seekers and the abolition of all funds intended for migrant integration. State-funded assistance programs for migrants are described by AfD as the “asylum industry.”
In addition, the party wants to exclude children and young people without permanent residency rights in Germany from regular classes. AfD also plans to establish a “remigration headquarters” within the state government, which would coordinate Saxony-Anhalt’s asylum policy.
It is questionable which of these measures the state government would even be legally permitted to implement. The introduction of special classes for refugees, for example, could conflict with international and European law. The federal government, rather than individual states, decides who may be deported and who may not.
Anti-immigration policy
AfD opposes immigration to Germany. In its program for the future government, it calls for a “180-degree turnaround in migration policy.” The explicit goal, therefore, is to reduce the number of immigrants in Saxony-Anhalt.
However, the state has been suffering from a severe shortage of skilled workers for years, particularly in the care of sick and elderly people.
AfD wants to solve the shortage of skilled labor by encouraging German professionals who have emigrated to return. To this end, it plans to launch a “return program.” Incentives would include a so-called “return bonus,” assistance in finding housing and help finding places in kindergartens. All of this would be aimed at families returning to Saxony-Anhalt from abroad.
It is unclear how many returnees AfD expects, or how much money it plans to allocate to the “return program.”
Saxony-Anhalt has been heavily affected by emigration for more than 30 years. No other German state has lost more inhabitants since German reunification in 1990.
Prominent economic experts, such as Reint Gropp, president of the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, warn that the shortage of skilled workers would worsen dramatically if AfD came to power.
“Highly qualified professionals in particular have alternatives. If they get the impression that they are not welcome or that they have to expect hostility toward them, they will choose other regions,” Gropp said in an interview with the daily newspaper “Die Welt.”
Moving closer to Russia
Germany’s 16 federal states have limited powers in foreign and security policy, but they can influence political debates. A potential state premier from AfD would carry significantly greater political weight.
When it comes to relations with Russia, AfD demands in its election program a renewed rapprochement with that country and the lifting of sanctions. Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Germany has largely halted imports of Russian oil.
The demand to lift sanctions is largely symbolic, because the state must comply with sanctions imposed at the federal level. Nevertheless, an AfD state premier could introduce new emphases into the debate on the issue in the influential Bundesrat, Germany’s chamber representing the federal states.
AfD also wants to introduce Russian-language classes in schools and specifically attract teachers whose native language is Russian for this purpose.
When it comes to Ukraine, AfD is taking a harder line and demanding a “return offensive” for Ukrainian refugees. However, the deportation of Ukrainians from Germany cannot be decided at the state level. These matters are regulated by federal policy.
Establishing citizens’ guards
AfD’s demand to establish a kind of auxiliary police force is particularly controversial. The regular police are “overburdened” with the task of guaranteeing security, AfD says in its program for the future government of Saxony-Anhalt.
“Therefore, as the third pillar of the security architecture at the local level, we will establish a voluntary citizens’ guard,” the program states.
Prominent legal scholar and criminologist Thomas Feltes from Ruhr University Bochum warns of the dangers of such an idea.
“The task of the police is to prevent danger and guarantee public protection. Only the police may use force in doing so,” Feltes writes in an opinion piece for the “Legal Tribune Online” portal.
A “citizens’ guard” or “citizens’ militia” could even have a negative impact on public safety, he believes.
“Where such groups operate, fear of crime is only encouraged, both among participants and, above all, among everyone else, not just among ‘concerned’ citizens,” Feltes explains.
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Source: N1/Blic Foto: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa via AP
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