Protestant Leaders Warn of AfD Victory in Saxony-Anhalt

4:06 AM ETDeveloping

Faith Desk

In Short: Bishop Heiner Wilmer and other church leaders have expressed grave concerns over the Alternative for Germany's electoral success, which has altered the political landscape in Saxony-Anhalt.

Bishop Heiner Wilmer and Protestant and ecumenical officials have declared that 'grave fears have become reality' following the Alternative for Germany's (AfD) landslide victory in the Saxony-Anhalt state election.

Church leaders in Saxony-Anhalt, including Bishop Gerhard Feige, Bishop Friedrich Kramer, and Karsten Georg Wolkenhauer, expressed 'great concern' at the election result, stating that the state election has profoundly changed the political landscape.

Saxony-Anhalt faces high unemployment rates and demographic decline, with deaths outnumbering births and younger people continuing to leave the state, contributing to the AfD's appeal.

What's still developing

Although the AfD came well ahead of the CDU, which has governed Saxony-Anhalt since 2002, winning 39 of the state parliament’s 83 seats, it fell short of the 42 seats required for a majority.
An analysis by the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen, a polling institute in Mannheim, concluded that Christians voted for the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt at significantly lower rates than the religiously unaffiliated.
The AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt branch said in its July manifesto that if it took power it would seek to revise the system of state payments to Germany’s largest religious bodies, including the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church in Germany.
In 2023, Saxony-Anhalt’s domestic intelligence agency classified the AfD’s state branch as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization.

Sources

The Pillarlink