Germany's far-right AfD clear frontrunner in eastern state vote

BERLIN: German voters headed to the polls on Sunday for a key regional election in the ex-communist east where the far-right, anti-immigrant, Moscow-and Trump-friendly AfD is expected to secure an easy majority. However, the Alternative for Germany, which polls have put at over 40 per cent for months in Saxony-Anhalt, is not guaranteed to win the absolute majority needed for it to control the state's government. Such a breakthrough would be the first time since the World War II that the far right has run a German state, a prospect that alarms mainstream parties and minority groups.
Polls opened at 8:00 am and some 1.7 million voters have until 6:00 pm to cast their ballots, with first projections expected soon after. The small state of 2.1 million people is currently governed by the centre-right CDU of Chancellor Friedrich Merz in coalition with two smaller parties. State premier Sven Schulze hopes to form another multi-party coalition to cling to power. All major parties have maintained a 'firewall' of non-cooperation with the AfD, whose Saxony-Anhalt branch is categorised as 'right-wing extremist' by Germany's domestic intelligence agency.
The AfD's telegenic top candidate Ulrich Siegmund — who has a large social media following — has confidently predicted an absolute majority. 'It was the others who erected the firewalls,' he told Bild daily. 'If no-one wants to work with us, then we'll just have to do it alone.' Such a scenario would shake Germany, which has sought to atone for its dark WWII history and so far kept extremist parties in check.
A strong AfD win would also heap pressure on Merz, who has vowed to reboot a stagnant economy and restrict irregular immigration, but has seen his party beaten by the AfD in national surveys too. 'If the AfD wins in Saxony-Anhalt, Merz's critics will become even more vocal and calls for better leadership will become impossible to ignore,' said political scientist Wolfgang Schroeder of Kassel University.
Siegmund, who was given a rapturous welcome by around 100 supporters when he voted in the town of Tangermuende, has ambitions to lead a political revolution from Saxony-Anhalt that would propel the party to national victory in 2029. Siegmund also wants to stop school attendance being compulsory and rewrite school history books, which focus too much for his liking on the crimes of the Third Reich.
The German Economic Institute warned the AfD's immigration policy would be 'ruinous' for Saxony-Anhalt, whose population is ageing, shrinking and highly reliant on foreign-born workers. Others have voiced fears an AfD-run state security apparatus could leak sensitive information to Russia to use to destabilise Germany. The latest poll, released on Thursday by public broadcaster ZDF, gave the AfD a lead of 41 per cent — nearly double its 2021 score.
The CDU garnered 23 per cent, the centre-left SPD 8.5 per cent and the Greens six per cent, while two smaller parties failed to cross the five-per cent hurdle to re-enter parliament. A similar result may allow a scenario where the CDU and others form a minority government with ad hoc support from the left-wing Die Linke party, which polled at 11.5 per cent. In the final stretch of campaigning, the AfD spread rumours of postal vote fraud, a claim dismissed as malicious by Germany's parliamentary speaker, Julia Kloeckner. 'Questioning elections without concrete evidence appears to have one goal,' she told news weekly Der Spiegel, 'to sow distrust in our rules and to accept the results only if the outcome suits.' — AFP