Germany’s far right AfD eyes election breakthrough in Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt elections: Germany's far-right AFD on track to secure majority Mario Jung does not fit the profile of a political hardliner. The 59-year-old banking clerk, who lives in Magdeburg in eastern Germany, has voted for the country’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the past. He also agrees with the AfD’s hardline immigration policy. “All illegal immigrants, those whose applications have been denied, and criminal immigrants as well – they have to be deported; there is no question about it,” he said. In its election platform, titled “The Country First”, the AfD calls for the abolition of the right to asylum, the confiscation of cash and assets of asylum seekers and mass deportations. It has since shifted further right, dominated today by a nationalist wing and hardline factions in the east, hardline immigration positions and opposition to sanctions on Russia. The AfD has also repeatedly politicised attacks by asylum seekers or Germans with foreign descent. AfD blamed the “catastrophic migration policy of the last few years”, but the attacker had been born in Germany. At the same time, the AfD has managed to nominate a lead candidate who is doing a very good job,” he told Al Jazeera. Martin Schroder, a professor of social sciences at Saarland University, believes that the AfD’s migration policy is crucial for its success. Together with a team, he conducted a study based on data from 2014 to 2024. “Concerns about immigration explain support for the AfD nearly 10 times as much as actual or perceived economic disadvantage,” he told Al Jazeera.