Anti-migrant AfD seeks to break Germany’s political ‘firewall’ in historic state election

A political earthquake is brewing in Germany's east as working-class and young voters appear set to deliver an unprecedented victory for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Sunday’s state elections in Saxony-Anhalt.

The AfD, which was famously backed by Elon Musk in last year’s national election, has been criticized for being pro-Russia and was accused of being a "right-wing extremist endeavor" by Germany’s domestic intelligence office, has the chance to become the first party outside the mainstream center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) or center-right Christian Democratic Union and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), to win an outright majority in a German state parliament, or Landtag, since World War II.

"The reason Saxony-Anhalt matters," foreign policy expert and author Daniel Schatz, who holds a doctorate in political science from Berlin's Humboldt University, told Fox News Digital, "is that the AfD is no longer just knocking on the door of power. It may be close to kicking it open."

Other minor parties have led governing coalitions in German states, but no party outside the SPD or the CDU and the CSU has ever held a single-party governing majority in Germany since the Federal Republic was re-established in 1949.

Janek Treiber, a political science researcher at Dresden University of Technology, told Fox News Digital that if the AfD does win outright in Saxony-Anhalt, their policy influence would be limited due to the German federal system, but warned "you must not underestimate the political symbol this would give. That a single party, and a right-wing party, could rule a German state… The symbol that these parties, that have been ruling Germany since 1949 or the East since 1990, they now lose control. They now lose power. I think this is a much more important symbol than just saying, OK, (the) AfD will change this or that in its local school system or university system."

Schatz described the AfD "a nationalist, anti-immigration party on the far right that has become a powerful vehicle for voter anger at Germany’s political establishment — especially in the former East Germany. It campaigns for much tighter immigration, a stronger emphasis on German national identity, rejection of much of the green agenda and a softer line toward Russia."

An outright win for the AfD, even in Germany’s 6th smallest state, would break through the political establishment’s so-called "Brandmauer," or "firewall." Simply put, other parties refuse to work with the AfD, which is currently the second-largest party in the Bundestag, officially the opposition party, after winning 20.8% of the vote in the February 2025 federal election.

In an interview on German broadcaster ZDF, the AfD’s national co-chair, Alice Weidel, advocated for closing Germany’s borders and exiting Europe’s Schengen treaty, saying, "Illegal migration, unchecked open borders, anyone can get in. Our internal security is suffering. People are honestly fed up with this situation."

Weidel added, "All Syrian refugees must have their protected status revoked because the reason for their flight no longer exists. These people must return to their homeland. If they don't leave voluntarily, then they must be deported by force." Adding that many of the 1.3 million Syrians in Germany are being naturalized, "we must stop naturalizing these people who should actually be leaving our country. We have Islamization."

In May 2025, Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) classified the AfD as a "confirmed right-wing extremist" group, citing "anti-migrant positions and an ancestry-based definition of German identity." This past February, according to Deutsche Welle, that classification was put on hold by a German court after "Judges found that while there was evidence of potentially unconstitutional statements and policies within the AfD… it said that there was not sufficient evidence to characterize the party as a whole as extremist."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently told state broadcaster ARD, "I cannot imagine international investors attending a ground-breaking ceremony with an AfD Minister-President to set up new plants and establish new businesses in Saxony-Anhalt… However, that is a decision for ​the voters in Saxony-Anhalt to make. The state will suffer ⁠considerable damage if things turn out as we now fear they ​might."

This has done little to damage the popularity of the AfD’s lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund. In a state of just over 2 million people, he has a TikTok following of over 700,000.

A younger voters to the AfD, due to rising expenses and unemployment. He also said that younger voters are "kind of polarized because the other part of the youth in Germany is voting for the left party (Die Linke)."

Saxony-Anhalt may just be the beginning for the anti-establishment parties. Voters in neighboring Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where former Chancellor Angela Merkel grew up and began her political career, go to the polls in two weeks. Polling data from Wahlrecht.de shows the AfD leading the ruling SPD 35%-32% there. 

Conversely, in Berlin, where voters in the capital also go to the polls in two weeks, the average of recent polling has the far-left Die Linke in a dead heat with the CDU at 20%, followed by the AfD at 18%, with the Greens and the SPD each around 15%. While the majority of the AfD’s support does come from the former East Germany, the party is represented in 14 of Germany’s 16 state legislatures and holds 15 of Germany’s 96 seats in the European Parliament.