A Call for Surrender: The AfD and BSW in the Saxony-Anhalt State Parliament

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Behind the Baroque façade on Magdeburg’s Cathedral Square, the newly elected State Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt convened for a special session on 14 October 2026. Was this special session, for example, about how the AfD-dominated state parliament should respond in future to economic and social problems in Saxony-Anhalt? Was it about a strategic direction for economic recovery, or about necessary measures in the education sector?

Not at all; it was about ‘peace in Ukraine’, as envisaged by the AfD and the BSW. What sort of peace do they want? The aggressor – Putin’s Russia – is to be rewarded with Ukraine’s surrender. To this end, Western states, led by the Federal Republic of Germany, are to cease all financial and military aid and lift all sanctions against Russia.

The most significant statement on this matter was made by Claudia Wittig, chair of the BSW parliamentary group: “Ukraine is a pawn in the game of geostrategic great-power interests, and the people there are paying for it with their lives. We here are paying for it with our tax money and at the petrol pumps.”

That is all one needs to know about this motion and the support given to it by the AfD and the BSW. It is simply a matter of fulfilling a single election promise made to the voters of these parties: “We’ll give you cheap petrol!” That is what they were elected for, and that is what the citizens of Saxony-Anhalt have to live with.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has long since ceased to be a war of conquest; Russia is waging a war of destruction. Civilian infrastructure, energy infrastructure and everything essential to a functioning state is being attacked and destroyed. Civilian casualties, including murdered children, are of no concern to Putin, nor to the BSW or the AfD. Cheap petrol for the ‘sacred motorbike’ is more important than the lives and freedom of the Ukrainian people.

A word about Claudia Wittig. There is no excuse for the BSW’s parliamentary group leader – as a historian, she knows full well where appeasement towards an aggressor leads; otherwise, she should hand back her Master’s degree. As a former member of Die Linke, albeit probably belonging to the Wagenknecht wing, she is likely openly sympathetic to a Stalinist regime. Such a regime also embraces anti-Semitism; at the very least, she is demanding that the new Minister-President must not be a ‘Zionist’, whatever she means by that.

What about the AfD? They’re just doing AfD things – no surprise there. However, there is another party in the state parliament that has been in government until now. What’s going on with the CDU?

The CDU is wavering between acting as a ‘firewall’ and aligning itself with the AfD under the guise of pragmatism. Now the parliamentary group intends to leave the chamber during the first and second rounds of voting in the election for Minister-President. Why? That’s surely obvious. The members of the parliamentary group do not trust one another. They fear that the AfD candidate will be elected in these rounds with votes from the CDU.

Failing to take part in the ballot rounds is therefore not a ‘sign’ of anything; it is a capitulation by the former people’s party. A sign would be if the parliamentary group members were to vote ‘no’ together. This way, nothing will come of it.

Conclusion: There is no ‘threat’ that the first AfD Minister-President of a German federal state will be elected – it is bound to happen. What will an AfD government in Saxony-Anhalt – which, with the votes willingly provided by the BSW, can push through a great deal – actually do? It will then have to govern; it will presumably shift the blame onto Berlin for anything it cannot deliver on its promises. It remains to be seen how long the citizens of Saxony-Anhalt will put up with this.