The far-right party is polling at up to 43% ahead of a looming election, as voters rank jobs, wages and the economy among their top concerns.
In 11 days, voters in Saxony-Anhalt will go to the polls and for the first time, the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) could emerge with enough support to put forward the regional state’s minister-president.
Recent polls put the nationalist, anti-immigration party at as much as 43%, putting it well ahead of the governing CDU, which is polling at just over 20%.
Saxony-Anhalt’s AfD branch has been classified by the state’s domestic intelligence agency as “confirmed far-right extremist”. This has done little to dent the popularity of its lead candidate, Ulrich Siegmund, who is sometimes greeted like a pop star at campaign rallies.
Focusing on migration and asylum, Siegmund claimed in a recent interview that Germany is “giving money away to the entire world,” highlighting that over €20 billion in Bürgergeld (welfare) goes to non-German citizens.
Saxony-Anhalt’s unemployment rate stood at 8.1% in July 2026, well above the German average of 6.4%. The state’s real GDP contracted by 0.2% in 2025 while Germany’s economy as a whole grew by 0.2%, albeit from a low base. Unsurprisingly, voters cited job security, wages and the overall economic situation as their most important concerns.
Analysts, however, are skeptical that the more restrictive migration policy announced by the AfD will lead to an improved economic situation.
“The AfD’s restrictive migration policy is at odds with Saxony-Anhalt’s strong demand for workers,” Thorsten Alsleben, managing director of the Initiative New Social Market Economy (INSM), a think tank associated with the German Economic Institute. He added that, contrary to repeated AfD claims, Germany’s biggest economic problem was not excessive immigration but a shortage of skilled workers.