Investigations
AfD led Saxony-Anhalt polls at 40 percent on election day
Pre-election surveys put the Alternative for Germany roughly 18 points ahead of the Christian Democrats in the eastern state.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the Alternative for Germany led pre-election polls at about 40 percent as voters chose a new state parliament on Sept. 6, 2026. Andrew Callaghan posted field footage from AfD rallies and from Magdeburg the same day.
The party's eastern stronghold remains poorer than western Germany decades after reunification. AfD state leader Ulrich Siegmund, 35, drew large crowds at festival-style rallies where free beer flowed and speakers blamed Angela Merkel's 2015 decision to grant asylum to 1.1 million refugees for crime and cultural loss. That phrase, that there was no alternative, gave the party its name.
Rally attendees praised Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and Elon Musk and demanded that Islam leave Germany. Several young people minimized the Holocaust, citing TikTok comment threads that put the death toll at 271,000 instead of six million. One 14-year-old girl said Hitler did nothing wrong.
Supporters echoed AfD calls to leave the European Union and NATO, lift sanctions on Russia, end climate policy, and create an ICE-style deportation force. When pressed on personal hardship, answers shifted to pensions, rent, and healthcare costs. A nurse said seniors in her facility lived on about €900 a month while paying €600 in rent.
Saxony-Anhalt has among the fewest migrants and one of the smallest Muslim populations in Germany, roughly 6 percent nationwide clustered in western cities. Researchers described fear of the unknown in places with almost no immigration. In Schönebeck, residents warned of knife attacks by migrants; the only local report found described neo-Nazis assaulting three teenagers.
The 2024 Magdeburg Christmas market attack became a radicalization moment for many AfD voters at the rallies. Attendees described a migrant driving into the crowd. The attacker, Saudi-born psychiatrist Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, was an anti-Islam activist who had expressed support for the AfD online.
In June 2026, Magdeburg's Regional Court sentenced al-Abdulmohsen to life for killing six people and injuring more than 300 when he rammed a rented BMW through the market on Dec. 20, 2024. The judge found particular severity of guilt, making early parole unlikely. Interior officials had described him as Islamophobic, not a Muslim migrant.
Mark Kant, a 24-year-old German content creator who confronts far-right attendees at rallies, said he receives death threats daily. Kant said three beers often loosen tongues at AfD festivals and that he can sometimes change minds among people under 25 by describing Nazi camp killings. Men over 40, he said, do not listen.
A slim pride parade in Magdeburg drew attendees who said slurs were common in the street and many queer residents fear the police. One participant said AfD politicians had openly called for ending same-sex marriage and banning public kissing by gay couples.
Official preliminary results for the Saxony-Anhalt election were scheduled for release after polls closed at 6 p.m., with other major parties maintaining a coalition firewall against governing with the AfD.
Source video: Inside The Rise of Germany's New Far-Right