By Benson Daniel
The historic election victory of Germany’s far right has left residents of Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, grappling with fear, disappointment and uncertainty over what the result could mean for the state’s future.
The Alternative for Germany, AfD, secured 43.8 per cent of the vote in Sunday’s state election, more than doubling its support from the previous election and finishing far ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, which managed 17.2 per cent.
The result represents the strongest showing by the far right in the state and brings the party within reach of forming Germany’s first far right state government since the Second World War. The AfD won 39 of the 83 seats in the state parliament, leaving it three seats short of the 42 required for an outright majority.
In Magdeburg, however, the reaction has been markedly different from the celebrations among AfD supporters.
Residents, particularly immigrants and people from minority backgrounds, expressed concern about the party’s anti immigration policies and its plans to tighten restrictions on migration.
Maryam, a teenager whose family moved from Syria to Germany, said she feared that the election result could eventually threaten her family’s right to remain in the country.
She said her family had lived with uncertainty because of residency requirements and now worried that a stronger AfD presence could increase the possibility of deportation.
For Judith, an 88 year old resident who was herself forced to flee her home in Silesia in 1945, the result was particularly painful.
She said she was devastated that a party with little regard for refugees had won such a large share of the vote, adding that the development was difficult to reconcile with Germany’s own history of displacement and persecution.
Other residents voiced concerns about the potential impact of an AfD led administration on Germany’s democratic institutions and its relationship with Europe.
Some also feared that the party’s rise could damage the reputation of Saxony-Anhalt and make foreign workers and immigrants feel increasingly unwelcome.
The concerns come as the AfD seeks to turn its electoral success into political power. Its candidate, Ulrich Siegmund, has argued that the result gives the party a clear mandate to govern.
However, forming an administration will be difficult because Germany’s mainstream political parties have maintained a so called firewall against cooperation with the AfD.
The party has been classified as right wing extremist by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency in Saxony-Anhalt, a classification the AfD rejects.
The election result has also sent shockwaves through Germany’s political establishment. Merz acknowledged that the defeat had shaken the CDU and said the party would have to draw consequences from the result.
For many residents of Magdeburg, however, the election is about more than political numbers.
It has raised immediate questions about immigration, Germany’s democratic values and the direction of a country still deeply conscious of the consequences of its 20th century history.
As political parties begin negotiations over the formation of the state government, residents are watching closely to see whether the AfD’s unprecedented electoral breakthrough will translate into power or remain a powerful warning to Germany’s established political forces.
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