The camera is running. Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s top candidate in Saxony-Anhalt for the upcoming state elections, holds a copy of the Magdeburger Volksstimme high. “Horror over AfD program,” is the headline in the local newspaper. Several lines on Siegmund’s copy are highlighted in light blue highlighter. He speaks in a sharp tone, but smiles for the viewers on Tiktok. Siegmund points to the first marked spot. “So, what’s bad about the content now?”
Saxony-Anhalt needs a “migration policy turnaround of 180 degrees,” he reads. Then he looks directly into the camera and shouts: “Of course we need that! Take a look around our cities.” The AfD politician moves his index finger over the second position. “We need a deportation and remigration offensive,” he reads a little more calmly. “Of course we need it!” This goes on a bit further.
What is striking is that Siegmund does not object. His social media presence follows a pattern that is now routine for the AfD. Instead of refuting criticism, the party simply tries to refute it. Everything is completely normal. What it aims to achieve is particularly clear in Saxony-Anhalt.
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In surveys for the state elections on September 6th, the national authoritarian AfD is leading with around 39 percent. No other party wants to work with her. But depending on how many make it over the 5 percent hurdle, it is not impossible that Siegmund and Co will be able to achieve an absolute majority and govern alone. The election program, the 156-page draft of which the AfD presented at the end of January, gives an idea of what would come next.
Russian lessons in schools
Clubs would therefore have to have a “basic patriotic attitude” and culture would have to make a contribution to “finding German identity” in order to receive money from the federal state. The AfD would like to expand Russian lessons in schools in order to promote “good relations with Russia”. That the country is currently one war in Europe? The AfD claims in its program that it “only affects the east” of Ukraine. Anyone fleeing Ukraine is therefore not necessarily a “war refugee”, which is why a “remigration offensive for Ukrainians living in Saxony-Anhalt” is also needed.
A task force should coordinate “remigration”. The term, which is based on the ethnic based on the idea of ethnopluralismled to nationwide demonstrations in 2024. In its election program, the AfD is trying to normalize it further and, for example, is acting as if the EU was also planning a “remigration offensive” to Ukraine. The AfD is also about keeping “culturally alien” and “illegal immigrants” out of Germany.
The party promises that it is committed to freedom of expression. But at the same time, the AfD Saxony-Anhalt wants to work at the federal level to criminalize anyone who “degrades and insults the German state and the German people.” What’s more, anyone who denigrates Germany as a “historical-cultural entity” should be punished with up to three years in prison. The Stern journalist Martin Debes believes that “historical-cultural structure” is so vague that it could also make denigrating the German NSDAP dictatorship a criminal offense.
This is just a short excerpt. The election program is a “document of ethnic radicalization,” says David Begrich, employee of the right-wing extremism department at the Miteinander association in Magdeburg, in an interview with the taz. The desire for a “largely authoritarian form of society” runs like a common thread through the program, explains Begrich. At the same time, the AfD, especially Ulrich Siegmund, is trying to appear as harmless and, above all, normal as possible.
Radical election program
This is also reflected in the internal allegations that the party is engaging in nepotism. MPs therefore employ each other’s family members and thus provide them with financial security. In a video, Ulrich Siegmund explains: Of course, the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt employs family members. He smiles into the camera. “That’s logical.” Who else should the AfD trust?
But why does the party represent more extreme positions and at the same time want to appear normal? “I would say that the AfD is double-addressing,” explains Begrich. On the one hand, with its radical election program it is signaling to its core voters that the party has their interests in mind. On the other hand, the AfD is telling the broader electorate that things won’t be that bad if they govern.
However, the election campaign hasn’t really started yet, warns Begrich. “The political situation is more volatile than the AfD would like to suggest.” In the past elections, the results differed by several percentage points from previous forecasts. “You shouldn’t fall into the political-psychological trap of saying that the AfD has already won the election in Saxony-Anhalt.”