Ulrich Siegmund leads Alternative for Germany into the Saxony-Anhalt state election on September 6, seeking to become Germany's first far-right state premier since the 1930s.
Recent opinion polls place the populist party, known as the AfD, on 42 and 43 per cent in the eastern state. That level of support could secure an absolute majority, preventing mainstream rivals from using a coalition firewall to keep the party out of office.
Siegmund, 35, serves as the lead candidate for the AfD. He recently met supporters at a traditional German Grillfest in the garden of a family-run hotel in Moeser. Hundreds gathered in the sunshine to eat sausages, drink lager and queue under a blue awning for selfies with Siegmund, who arrived with beefy bodyguards, a sharp haircut and a friendly smile.
Speaking from the stage to loud cheers and applause, Siegmund outlined his vision. "We stand for freedom. We stand for once again standing up for our own country and our own people," he told reporters.
Siegmund insisted the regional vote is only the first step toward national power. "Saxony-Anhalt is only the first step," he said. "We want to achieve this throughout the country. In the coming years, I see more states led by the AfD and then - by 2029 at the latest - we will be in Berlin."
His campaign song echoed that goal, declaring: "It starts here and from here it goes on, and everything is possible." However, the day after the rally, news magazine Der Spiegel featured Siegmund on its cover, branding him "Germany's most dangerous man" and reporting that an extremist network operates behind his public persona.
Security Concerns and Intelligence Warnings
Federal officials in Berlin are taking urgent steps to protect national security and Nato defences. Concerns center on Saxony-Anhalt's location near Berlin in former East Germany, where an AfD state government could block military transit routes or misuse access to intelligence during an international crisis.
Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Office for Protection of the Constitution, formally designated the AfD as an "extremist entity" last year following a three-year inquiry. The move enabled increased surveillance and prompted calls to ban the party. Responding to ban proposals, one Berlin MP asked: "If you have cancer and 42 per cent of your body is full of cancer, do you give up the body or do you try to contain the cancer?"
Roderich Kiesewetter, a Christian Democratic Union MP and former army colonel, said federal authorities are examining legal options to override state jurisdiction during a crisis. "In the case of a state of emergency or the Bundestag invoking of zustimmungsfall to guard against threats, federal police could then take over certain responsibilities," Kiesewetter said, adding that the Interior Ministry is considering the measure.
Kiesewetter warned that the party threatens Germany's democratic standing. "The AfD is offering to repeat the historic mistakes of the past," he said. "They tend to accept Russia as a leading power while regarding France, Britain and even the United States as decadent powers."
The AfD's regional platform seeks to lift sanctions on Russia, restore Russian energy links, stop arms supplies to Ukraine and reintroduce Russian-language lessons in schools. Its deputy leader defended Russia's invasion of Ukraine and raised the AfD flag in Russia. Siegmund has also suggested abolishing the state intelligence agency, while security fears heightened after an explosive-laden drone was found beside a Ukrainian cargo plane at nearby Leipzig airport.
Migration Policies and Party Background
Launched 13 years ago to oppose European Union bailouts under former chancellor Angela Merkel, the AfD grew rapidly after the 2015 migration crisis, when Germany admitted over one million refugees. Party figures have faced criticism for echoing Nazi slogans, including party leader Bjoern Hoecke, who described Berlin's Holocaust memorial as a "monument of shame in the heart of their capital."
Siegmund was reported to have attended a secret meeting three years ago to discuss a remigration masterplan involving mass deportations of asylum seekers and non-assimilated citizens. He urged that Saxony-Anhalt become "as unattractive as possible" to targeted groups, suggesting foreign restaurants should face pressure. Siegmund, who has over 500,000 Instagram followers, insists "Germany must become more German again."
At the Moeser rally, supporters rejected accusations of radicalism. Anna, an office worker attending with her mother, said: "I don't see any far-Right extremists here, just people from the middle - and if you want to argue the toss, I feel more threatened by Left-wing and Green extremists than I do from the Right."
Jenny Guettler, 30, attending with her two sons, called the AfD the only party addressing immigration issues. "People who are dangerous, who cannot afford to be here, they should go," she said bluntly. Guettler linked migration to personal safety, adding: "I feel unsafe as a woman. Since 2016 you get catcalls, you get looked at, you even get touched. Yes, that was my first memory of immigration in 2016. It felt so alienating."
Eight miles away in Magdeburg, a Saudi psychiatric refugee drove a vehicle into a Christmas market two years ago, killing six people and injuring 299. Peter Pavelzeck, 68, a retired mechanic who served in the East German army, wore a shirt depicting the former East German flag. Quoting 19th-century leader Otto von Bismarck, Pavelzeck said: "That's how I see it with Vladimir Putin - he should not be excluded."
Demographic Strain and East German Resentment
Saxony-Anhalt, where Martin Luther launched the Reformation five centuries ago, has suffered severe demographic decline since German reunification in 1990. The state lost a quarter of its population as young, educated women moved west, leaving it as Germany's oldest state demographically with 121 young men for every 100 young women aged 18 to 29.
Kerstin Volkl, a political scientist at Martin Luther University in Halle, said economic collapse after 1990 created lasting resentment. "Reunification was more of a takeover by the West," Volkl said. "This led to the feeling of being treated as second-class citizens. That feeling has lasted until today." She noted data shows over ten per cent of local voters support dictatorship, adding: "The AfD has become increasingly radicalised, particularly in Saxony-Anhalt. Ulrich Siegmund is their friendly face. He's extremely good rhetorically. He's charismatic. He's the figurehead for the AfD. The hardliners are in the background."
Church leaders have strongly rejected the party. Friedrich Kramer, Regional Bishop of the Evangelical Church, urged voters not to support the AfD. "The AfD's political position, based on its programme, cannot be reconciled with Christianity," Kramer said. "The AfD opens its door very widely towards the extreme Right. They speak of the Nazi era as a 'speck of bird droppings' in German history."
Mainstream parties previously blocked the AfD through coalition firewalls, as in neighbouring Thuringia two years ago, where the party won 32 per cent of the vote but was kept out of office when three parties united. However, strong polling in Saxony-Anhalt suggests no firewall could prevent the AfD from taking power.
Voter Division and Local Reactions
Voters across Saxony-Anhalt remain deeply divided. In Magdeburg, Karen, 75, eating ice cream on a bench, rejected the party. "Weg, weg," Karen said with an angry wave of her hand. "They have Nazis in their ranks and that is not acceptable at all. We have had all that before. History is repeating itself." Birgit, 55, a physiotherapist, said: "I would not vote for the AfD out of a deep-rooted sense of fear. You don't know how they will turn out but there is a fear they will be far too radical."
Foreign residents and students expressed deep concern over potential AfD governance. Leon Sokolov, 20, an aerospace engineering student whose father is from Russia, said: "My father is from Russia. I grew up here, this is my home, but in their eyes I am seen as different. They just want to make lives more difficult for people with a migration background." Sokolov warned that a national victory would cause serious economic problems through EU exit and remigration.
Mohammed, 24, an asylum seeker from Iran, plans to move west next month. "It is because of the situation here," Mohammed said, describing racist abuse in shops and trams. "There are many good things in Germany - I can find a job, I can study, transport is good - but sometimes in Saxony-Anhalt, bad things happen."
David Ojo, 24, a German-born medical student whose parents are from Nigeria, described facing racial slurs in hospitals and on public transport. "When it happens to me now I just laugh," Ojo said. "The problem is the AfD normalises hostility. It legitimises the ideology that immigrants are the problem. I worry a lot about that. You go to the hospital here and the hospital does not work without immigrants at every level."
Maik Reichel, director of the State Agency for Political Education and a former Social Democratic MP, noted that migration ranks first among AfD voters but fifth overall among all citizens, after schools, jobs, living costs and transport. "People want something different without necessarily knowing exactly what they want to be different," Reichel said. "If you ask them what should change, they say 'everything.'" Reichel warned that voters who lost faith in economic advancement are falling for messianic leaders, asking: "Who wants to be the guinea pig in that situation?"
