“Everything is Possible,” declares the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the far-right party sending shockwaves across Germany and farther afield, after winning 43.8% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, a state of around two million people in the eastern part of the country.
asserted
Alternative → declare → country
Like other populist movements that have dominated politics over the last decade, the AfD has not hidden its light under a bushel.
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AfD → dominate → bushel
It’s all there in black and white.
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It → ’ → black
At the start of its election campaign in Saxony Anhalt, the AfD published a 258-page manifesto bearing its motto: “Das Land Zuerst,” or “The Country First.”
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AfD → publish → motto
The manifesto promises large scale deportations of immigrants, including naturalized German citizens, under its remigration program, particularly targeting those who do not look or sound “German.”
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who → promise → those
It seeks to change the history curriculum in schools to teach “more Bismarck and less Hitler,” emphasizing imperial achievements and national power while diminishing Germany’s postwar culture of remembrance and attention paid to Nazism and the Holocaust.
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It → seek → Nazism
The manifesto promises to support “normal” heterosexual families and conventional households while withholding benefits and legal recognition from LGBTQ families and others it considers “deviant.”
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it → promise → families
It aggressively opposes German military aid to Ukraine and insists that restoring friendly relations with Russia would provide cheaper access to energy and lower prices for Germans.
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restoring → oppose → Germans
The far right party’s manifesto is worth reading in full.
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manifesto → read → ?
It is no wonder that Germany’s domestic intelligence agency classified the AfD chapters in Saxony Anhalt and a neighboring state as right-wing extremist.
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agency → classify → extremist
Yet it is worth admitting that a large number of Germans are finding this vision enticing.
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vision → admit → Germans
The beguiling promises of the AfD
The AfD’s sweeping, simplistic promises offer a beguiling contrast with the gray incrementalism of politics as practiced by a succession of coalition governments in Berlin— a politics of hard truths and achingly slow progress, when there is any progress at all.
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promises → offer → truths
Why vote for parties synonymous with budget cuts to balance the books, job losses amid fierce competition from China, and billions spent on rearmament when you can return to the secure world of yesteryear?
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you → vote → yesteryear
The AfD won voters away from all its mainstream rivals, winning over 82,000 voters who had previously supported the governing Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU).
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who → win → Germany
But one of the more striking consequences of the Sept. 6 election in Saxony-Anhalt was that the AfD energized people who had stopped voting, and brought 170,000 of them—around a tenth of the local electorate—back to the ballot box.
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who → energize → box
These are people who had largely given up on politics, and who, for years, have inhabited a parallel universe.
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who → give → universe
Many of these voters regard Germany’s Nazi past as overblown and refuse to draw parallels between then and now.
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Many → regard → parallels
They also see centrist politics as the instrument of a deep state seeking to undermine their values.
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They → see → values
While reporting from Saxony-Anhalt, I was reminded of a small incident I witnessed before the pandemic.
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I → report → pandemic
I was walking along a street in Leipzig, one of the main cities of the former Communist East Germany, with a helpful contact, an intelligent local activist who had once worked for the Greens.
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who → walk → Greens
As we passed the offices of MDR, the regional public broadcaster, she suddenly shouted, without provocation, “Lügenpresse”—“lying press,” or “fake news.”
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she → pass → press
Startled, I asked what the station had done to earn her ire.
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station → startle → ire
“They don’t listen to the likes of me,” was all she could say.
uncertain
she → listen → me
The more I pressed her to identify the specific source of her grievance, the more agitated she became.
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she → press → grievance
Some of what is happening in German politics is particular to this country, not least the long-held resentment among many eastern Germans, whether real or perceived, at having been treated as second-class citizens since reunification in 1990.
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what → happen → 1990
But much of it belongs to a broader far-right insurgency across Europe, the United States and beyond.
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much → belong → Europe
Echoes of MAGA
The victorious AfD candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund is a 35-year-old former fragrance salesman who ran a charismatic, brilliantly executed campaign.
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who → run → campaign
He has made clear that President Donald Trump is his “model.”
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is → make → ?
Even as the U.S. war in Iran sent oil prices soaring and strained German household budgets, the AfD, unlike other political parties in Europe, did not distance itself from the Trump Administration.
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AfD → send → Administration
That will not have gone unnoticed by Trump, whose National Security Strategy of Nov. 2025 promised to support “patriotic” movements across Europe to help prevent what it called “civilizational erasure.”
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it → go → what
In his first reaction to the election result, President Trump refrained from mentioning the AfD by name but declared: “Wow, the populist party in Germany had a really big night.”
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party → refrain → night
He ended his post with ‘MGGA!!!’—apparently shorthand for “Make Germany Great Again.”
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Germany → end → shorthand
The party makes no secret of its warmth toward Vladimir Putin, echoing the Russian president’s positions on Ukraine and much else besides.
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party → make → Ukraine
It calls for immediate “peace” negotiations, pretty much on the Kremlin’s terms.
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It → call → terms
Bringing Russia back into the heart of Europe, the party believes, would help advance its socially conservative agenda, restore a constant flow of cheap oil and gas, and provide stability.
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party → bring → stability
The German constitution, created after World War II, requires political parties to build coalitions at both the federal and regional levels.
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constitution → create → levels
The intention has always been to prevent the accumulation of power in a single party’s hands.
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intention → prevent → hands
That the AfD came tantalizingly close to an overall majority in Saxony-Anhalt—falling just three seats short in the 83-seat regional parliament—is remarkable in itself.
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came → come → itself
Now Siegmund, the AfD leader, who made much of motorbike rides and other colorful campaign-trial outings, faces the hard graft of trying to form a government.
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who → make → government
To do so, he must either persuade one of the other parties to cut a deal or entice a few maverick lawmakers to defect.
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he → do → lawmakers
…and 32 more, not listed.
The Aporia
