Politics Germany
Germany's
far-right AfD vows to 'make history'
The AfD
looks set to take power in a German state for the first time. In a DW
exclusive, the front-runner in Saxony-Anhalt discusses plans to detain
immigrants and revamp the school system, and relations with Russia.
Ulrich
Siegmund, the lead candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany party in
the upcoming regional election in Saxony-Anhalt, has told DW he wants to create
a "domino effect" with a "historic" victory.
According
to the latest polls, the AfD is on course to win the election in the eastern
state in September, and could even govern alone.
"There's
a real sense of optimism here in Saxony-Anhalt. It's a wonderful feeling. We
want nothing more and nothing less than to make history. We're making the first
AfD-led government in all of Germany a reality here in Saxony-Anhalt,"
35-year-old Siegmund told DW in an interview at the state parliament in
Magdeburg.
How much
of a neo-Nazi party is the German AfD?
Siegmund's
branch of the AfD is one of the more controversial in Germany.
The
Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the state's domestic
intelligence service, has labeled the AfD's regional chapter as
"right-wing extremist." It argues that the party pushes a concept of
citizenship based on race, which contradicts the German constitution, the Basic
Law.
Siegmund
dismisses the intelligence agency's classification as politically motivated.
Yet
political opponents and police chiefs warn that an AfD government would present
risks to national security, including the sharing of classified information.
The AfD,
Siegmund insists, is "committed to the rule of law." But many
political scientists are skeptical.
"I
assume that an AfD in government would further establish and professionalize
its radicalism," Matthias Quent, from the Institute for Democratic Culture
at Magdeburg-Stendal University, told DW. "Especially in Saxony-Anhalt,
which has one of the most far-right state branches. There are no forces there
that would want a different course."
No
'ideological vetting'?
Behind-the-scenes
preparations are underway to start scouting potential candidates to fill key
roles in a new administration.
Siegmund
said recruitment would follow the civil service rules and said he would not
carry out "ideological vetting" of candidates with connections to the
white supremacist Identitarian movement.
"For
me, the focus is on the individual, and we take a close look at them. If they
meet the criteria for the position in question, I will not subject them to
ideological vetting, but will instead respect them, their qualifications and
the applicable legal framework," he said.
If the
far-right AfD were to take power in Saxony-Anhalt following the September
election, Siegmund estimates that up to 200 positions would need to be filled
across ministries and state agencies.
Asked
whether he would adhere to the AfD's own rules — which bar party members from
joining certain organizations, including extremist groups — Siegmund drew a
distinction between party membership and state appointments.
"You're
talking about a political party. We're talking about a state government,"
he said. "There are no political guidelines when appointing, for example,
a department head — there is a legal framework, and of course, we always adhere
to that. What you mean is political cooperation or party membership."
Sociologist
Quent, however, expects that, if the AfD comes into government it will try to
install its extremist supporters into the civil service.
Security
services overhaul
Siegmund,
a former salesman, whose TikTok account is among the most popular political
accounts in the country, also outlined his intention to address law enforcement
agencies.
"Actually,
we want to steer the apparatus back onto the path to success, depoliticize it
and make it neutral again — and, above all, serve the interests of the
country," he said.
Georg
Maier, the interior minister in neighboring Thuringia, has called for the
implications of an AfD takeover of power to be on the agenda at the next
meeting of state interior ministers in June.
Maier
told DW: "We're seeing that the AfD's strategy is to undermine our liberal
democracy from within and destroy it piece by piece."
'Remigration
plans'
The AfD
has promised to get tough on rejected asylum-seekers or migrants whose visas
have expired. In contrast to current legislation, the AfD wants all people
awaiting deportation to be detained.
"Under
our government, individuals required to leave the country must, of course, be
placed in detention pending deportation," Siegmund said.
He wants
to set up a deportation task force to enforce those new rules. According to
figures from Saxony-Anhalt's Interior Ministry, there are just under 5,000
people in the state who are required to leave the country.
Education
overhaul
Siegmund
wants root and branch changes to the education system, from the reintroduction
of home schooling to separate classes for refugee children. In Germany,
education is a matter for the federal states.
"We
are going to de-ideologize the curricula. That means everything that has been
ideologically introduced here in recent years will be removed," he said.
The AfD
has campaigned heavily on removing diversity education, LGBTQ+ awareness and
anti-racism seminars from public education.
Russia
reset
Although
foreign policy is the responsibility of the federal government, Siegmund has
called for an end to sanctions on Russia. If elected, he's pledged to bring
back Russian language courses and wants Russian students to return to the state
as part of school exchange programs. The small state of Saxony-Anhalt was part
of East Germany, the GDR, which had close ties to the Soviet Union.
"Why
should we now simply steer culture in a different direction just because that's
the zeitgeist? We don't think that's a good idea. We want culture to remain
separate from this trend," Siegmund argued.
Why is
the far-right AfD so powerful in eastern Germany?
At the
start of the year, Siegmund came under pressure over allegations of nepotism.
Numerous AfD lawmakers in the state parliament were revealed to have secured
well-paid jobs for the family members of their colleagues.
Siegmund
himself also made the headlines for attending a networking event for far-right
figures in 2023. Media reports on this meeting subsequently sparked the largest
civil society protests in the history of the German Federal Republic.
At that
so-called "Potsdam Meeting," Austrian ethnonationalist Martin Sellner
presented his master plan for "remigration."This plan involves the
deportation of asylum-seekers, foreigners with the right to remain and
"non-assimilated citizens."
AfD hopes
for 'domino effect'
Despite
the scandals, the AfD's support in opinion polls has continued to grow. If the
regional surveys in Saxony-Anhalt are correct, September's election could end
more than two decades of conservative rule and mark a breakthrough for the AfD,
which was founded as an anti-euro party in 2013, and embraced the issue of
anti-immigration in 2015.
Despite
the pressure to deliver results, Siegmund believes an AfD victory would be a
springboard for others in the party.
"It
would send the signal that a political shift is finally taking place, that we
are once again pursuing policies tailored to our own state. And that would, of
course, have a domino effect," Siegmund said.
The
election in Saxony-Anhalt is scheduled for September 6; just under 1.8 million
people are eligible to vote in the state, which has seen its population shrink
and age faster than other regions.
Edited
by: Rina Goldenberg
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