(L-R) Ulrich Siegmund, top candidate in the Saxony-Anhalt state election for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and his party's federal co-leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, address a press conference in Berlin, Sept. 7Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters
If there was any doubt radical change is under way in Germany, it was answered this weekend by voters in Saxony-Anhalt.
For the first time since the infamous Nazi epoch, a far-right party has claimed victory in a state election. The win by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party – designated an extremist group by domestic intelligence agencies in numerous German states – has shaken the political foundation of Europe. It represented an irrevocable repudiation of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and of mainstream parties more generally.
And surely, few are smiling more broadly about it than Russia’s Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.
For those who have witnessed the rise of Mr. Trump and his MAGA Republican base, the AfD’s winning platform has an eerie echo. For years the party has campaigned not only on closing Germany’s borders to immigrants, but carrying out mass deportations under a program it euphemistically calls “remigration.” It also wants the children of refugees to be schooled in segregated classrooms.
It has called for rainbow flags in schools to be banned and the rights of LGBTQ citizens to be restricted.
Germany’s Merz refuses to work with AfD after far-right party’s landslide victory in state election
Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, an AfD politician in Saxony-Anhalt’s state legislature, told a CBC News reporter covering the election there that his party wants to “make Germany great again” by rebuilding “our wealth, our freedom, our liberty … rejoice please. Don’t be afraid.” In speaking to the party’s desire to restrict the rights of LBGTQ citizens, he said “rainbow ideology” is used to “destroy normal families” and is a “pervert thing.”
Anyone who hasn’t been paying attention to German politics will doubtlessly be shocked by the AfD’s triumph. Beyond their nativist, bigoted views toward immigrants and others, the AfD wants to make friends with Russia and cut funding to Ukraine. It would seem the party wants to mimic the Trump playbook.
Like Mr. Trump, the AfD has built its base of support among ultraconservatives and those feeling disenfranchised by the current political system. A swath of the country’s working class feel they have been left behind in favour of elites catered to by Berlin’s governing class. Many of the disaffected live in the former East Germany. For years now, the AfD has exploited the anger of those living there who feel their standard of living has declined compared to Germans living in western states.
Like many populist movements, including MAGA, the AfD offers simplistic solutions to complicated problems.
Americans saw that during Mr. Trump’s first term, where his penchant for trashing established norms got the country nowhere except further in debt. He left office after inciting a mob of wild-eyed protesters that stormed the U.S. Capitol. And yet, 77 million Americans voted the far-right populist back into power four years later.
Now the country is seeing what happens when you bestow power on a person and party with no coherent plan to deal with the problems. Mr. Trump’s second term has been an unmitigated disaster, the full global repercussions of which yet remain to be seen.
This is what happens when people get sucked in by the trite, easy slogans of a charismatic hustler.
I always thought Germans were more sophisticated than our neighbours to the south and couldn’t be easily charmed by those selling banal, one-dimensional solutions to all that ails their country. Close the borders, and get rid of all undocumented immigrants? Sure. With a fertility rate that fell to 1.32 per woman in 2025, the AfD better find a plan to convince Germans to start having a whole bunch more kids and in a hurry, or risk economic collapse. In the U.S., many employers are complaining they can’t find anyone to do the menial jobs that now-outcast immigrants once filled.
But immigrants do make an inviting target for populists and those angry at their lot in life.
The CDU and other mainstream parties in Germany have managed to keep the AfD out of power mostly by forming coalitions against them. It’s been dubbed the “firewall” strategy. It now seems only a matter of time before the “firewall” gives way.
The AfD won 39 seats in Saxony-Anhalt’s 83-seat Parliament – three short of a majority. So it will need help from another party or a few of their politicians to form government. That eventuality now seems a given.
Regardless, the AfD’s showing has signalled a turning point in Germany – a fact even Mr. Merz had to acknowledge. “This election result will have consequences,” he told reporters.
What they are remain to be seen. But it’s difficult imagining them not being profound and life-changing for many Germans – and not in a good way.