Story summary
In a closely watched regional election, Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is poised to gain power in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD is expected to secure at least 44% of the vote, more than double its showing five years ago, according to exit polls. This would give the party a significant majority and potentially mark the first time a far-right party has held state-level power in Germany since World War II.
The AfD's rise to prominence is seen as a threat to mainstream parties, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is currently leading the state. The party's success is attributed to its promise to restrict immigration and restore ties with Russia, as well as its charismatic leader, Ulrich Siegmund.
A victory for the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt would be a significant milestone for the party, which has been gaining momentum in recent years. It could also have broader implications for German politics, potentially leading to a shift towards a harder line on immigration and European integration.
Experts warn that an AfD government could lead to significant changes in areas such as education and foreign policy, including creating separate classrooms for refugees and promoting a patriotism agenda that focuses less on the country's Nazi past. The party has also been accused of adopting tactics inspired by President Trump, including casting doubt on the integrity of absentee voting.
The outcome of the election is still uncertain, but it is clear that the AfD's rise to power would be a historic event with significant implications for Germany and Europe.
Written for “Far-Right Party's Rise in Germany” on 2026-09-07,
grounded in this article and the 41 other(s) covering the same event.
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The rise of the Right across Europe is being spearheaded from the German medieval city of Magdeburg, where today a nationalist party is expected to seize power for the first time since Nazism was destroyed and Hitler committed suicide in a Berlin bunker.
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Hitler → see → bunker
Our map shows that 81 years later, more than half of the EU's 27 member states – from Italy to Finland – are now ruled, or influenced, by Right-wing parties and factions that question the virtues of uncontrolled mass immigration.
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that → show → immigration
Nowhere is the defiance against Brussels' multicultural agenda starker than in Magdeburg, the former East German communist capital of Saxony-Anhalt, where the result of the epoch-making state parliament elections are due tonight.
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result → make → elections
Final opinion polls reveal a runaway lead of 41 per cent for the contentious Alternative for Germany (AFD) party, 13 years after it emerged as a fringe anti-immigration outfit.
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it → reveal → outfit
The centre-Left magazine Der Spiegel has asked whether the AFD's leader in the state, the charismatic Ulrich Siegmund, is 'the most dangerous man in Germany'.
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leader → ask → Germany
Yet the party's popularity has been on the rise, say academics, since former Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany's doors – and effectively those of the EU – to 1.3 million migrants in 2015, many of them fleeing war in Syria.
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many → say → Syria
As leader of the centrist Christian Democratic Union (CDU) government at the time, she declared 'We can do it', confidently insisting that the country could handle the relentless swathes of newcomers.
Today the CDU faces a voters' backlash across Germany.
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CDU → declare → Germany
Activists wave a German flag at an AfD rally in Magdeburg earlier this week
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Activists → wave → Magdeburg
Babe Fall, 31, came to Germany from Mali but fears that he may experience aggression if the AfD wins
British historian Timothy Garton Ash has said: 'The dramatic influx of refugees is the single most direct cause of the AFD's electoral success.'
Professor Andreas Rodder, contemporary history expert at Germany's Mainz University, predicts an attempted 'firewall' – whereby all mainstream parties, particularly the CDU, resolve not to co-operate, form coalitions or govern with the AFD –
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parties → come → AFD
to stop the party taking power
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party → stop → power
In and around Magdeburg, tens of thousands of excited AFD supporters were staging rallies this weekend before heading for voting stations.
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thousands → stag → stations
Already the party is the main opposition, holding 152 seats out of 630 in the Bundestag, Germany's parliament – with numerous polls showing it would win outright power if a national election was held today.
And while this country, and many others in Europe, have been plagued by migrant crime or terror atrocities, voters here in Magdeburg have their own particular tragic memories.
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voters → hold → memories
In 2016 I first visited the city to report on the story of a 19-year-old university student who was gang-raped by three Afghan men from a refugees' housing block.
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who → visit → block
Having ambushed her, they dragged her into nearby bushes.
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they → ambush → bushes
In 2024, a BMW 4x4 was driven through the city's Christmas market, ramming 309 people and killing six, including a nine-year-old boy, in what police described as a 'rampage' by a 50-year-old Saudi-born psychiatrist and refugee who was later jailed for life.
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who → drive → life
None of this is forgotten (or indeed forgiven), particularly by young Germans enticed by the AFD's slick social media messages warning of the dangers of mass immigration, and promising that migrants who enter the country illegally will be sent home.
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who → forget → country
Young AfD supporters, from left, Jason Appel, 16, Elias Megenkoth, 18, and Emily Handke, 15, at the rally
Participants hold placards in front of the Magdeburg Cathedral during a rally on September 5
Centre-Left magazine Der Spiegel has asked whether the AFD's leader in Saxony-Anhalt, the charismatic Ulrich Siegmund, is 'the most dangerous man in Germany'
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leader → hold → Germany
For teenagers and those in their 20s, the hideous evils of the Third Reich were committed long ago, and they feel it is now their own futures that are at stake.
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that → commit → stake
One rallying slogan – 'More Bismarck, less Hitler' – has caught their eye.
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slogan → catch → eye
It is a message that insists the school history curriculum should emphasise less the horrific atrocities of the Nazi period and more Germany's triumphant past, not least the 19th century rule of Otto von Bismarck.
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curriculum → insist → Bismarck
The so-called Iron Chancellor unified the country, began its empire and introduced old-age pensions and health insurance to undercut socialism's appeal.
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Chancellor → call → appeal
At an evening rally in Haldensleben, a village near Magdeburg, I spoke to teenagers preparing to vote.
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I → speak → teenagers
An 18-year-old factory worker, Elias Megankoth, who was waving an AFD poster, told me: 'Migrant criminals should be put in jail or leave the country.'
Another youngster, just 16, added: 'We are Generation Germany and we support remigration to send home foreigners who break our laws.'
Meanwhile, Max Reinecke, 17, said he had been to ten rallies of different political parties but had decided that when he is old enough to vote at 18 it will be for AFD.
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it → wave → AFD
'We are living through the consequences of migrants in our classrooms, on our streets,' he said.
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he → live → streets
'It is time for our voice to be heard.
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voice → hear → ?
A few streets away I met migrants who now fear a reckoning.
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who → meet → reckoning
Babe Fall, 31, is from Mali, a country rocked by Islamic insurgency, and stopped his bicycle to talk to me.
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Fall → rock → me
He said he works as a delivery driver and is frightened: 'I think I will experience aggression against me if the AFD win.'
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AFD → say → me
Mr Siegmund and his wife Julia arrive to vote in the state election on a blue moped this morning
Kamir Hashemi, centre, came to Germany in 2016 and believes an AFD victory could change how he is treated by the public
Max Reinecke, right with friend Flynn Schubert, said he had been to ten rallies of different political parties but had decided that when he is old enough to vote at 18 it will be for AFD
AFD supporter Claudia Herzog attended the rally in a blue jumpsuit emblazoned with the party's logo
At the high street barber's shop I met Kamir Hashemi, 31, who came to Germany in 2016 with a huge family contingent of five brothers, his parents and his wife.
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who → arrive → brothers
'I like Frau Merkel,' he said with a grin.
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he → like → grin
'I could never go back to Afghanistan where my two daughters would wear a face covering and be barred from school.
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daughters → go → school
The German people are respectful to us, but I expect an AFD victory will change that.'
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victory → expect → that
His words were echoed by another barber, a Syrian Kurd aged 31 who refused to give me his name.
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who → echo → name
He said that in his salon, near Kamir's own, there was 'real fear' among his Iranian and Iraqi customers.
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He → say → customers
'They are scared they will be made to leave Germany with their families immediately if the AFD wins.
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AFD → scar → families
The Saxony-Anhalt election is a microcosm of rising migrant scepticism across the EU.
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election → rise → EU
Over the border in France, National Rally's Marine Le Pen leads polls ahead of the presidential election next year, with a promise to hold a referendum on whether Muslim women should be allowed to wear the hijab.
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women → lead → hijab
Support for Right-wing populist parties in Poland, Portugal, Croatia and elsewhere is soaring, but resistance to illegal immigration is nowhere more virulent than in Spain.
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resistance → soar → Spain
A border invasion of Ceuta, Spain's North African enclave, by tens of thousands of Moroccans and sub-Saharans in July, has hardened hearts.
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invasion → harden → hearts
No fewer than 22 EU member states have criticised Madrid's ultra-Left government for threatening the security of the entire bloc as result of its failure to halt mass immigration.
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states → criticise → immigration
…and 7 more, not listed.
