German actors, sports personalities, business leaders, and NGOs are teaming up to try to dissuade voters in Saxony-Anhalt from voting for Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), to prevent the party from winning an outright majority in the state election on September 6.
The campaign, titled Wahre Heimatliebe ist (“True love of home is”), features actors including Sandra Hüller, Christian Friedel, Anna Schudt, and Max Simonischek, alongside figures from academia, business, and sport.
The organisers say an AfD majority and an AfD-led state government would have “serious social and economic consequences” for Saxony-Anhalt and beyond. They are calling on voters to participate in the election and support “democratic parties.”
The initiative joins a growing number of left-wing and mainstream groups campaigning against an AfD victory.
The German Trade Union Confederation is supporting the Wir sind Sachsen-Anhalt campaign, while the Catholic Diocese of Magdeburg has launched Bewusst wählen (“Vote consciously”), focusing on “human dignity, solidarity, and social responsibility.” Cultural organisations have also launched Stolz auf Vielfalt (“Proud of diversity”).
So-called anti-fascists and climate activists from all over Germany are descending on Saxony-Anhalt to knock on doors, approach people on the streets, and distribute anti-AfD leaflets.
Radical left-wing association Campact has reported spending hundreds of thousands of euros on measures benefiting Social Democrat (SPD) and Green candidates.
One of the goals of the campaign is to lift the two parties over the five percent hurdle, another is to support the centre-right CDU in order to prevent constituency victories for the AfD.
AfD leader Alice Weidel has condemned such campaigns as political interference and called for greater transparency over NGO funding. She questioned whether campaigns benefiting particular parties could amount to illegal party financing.
It is an absolute scandal when left-wing NGOs claim political neutrality on the one hand, while on the other conducting a massive campaign against opposition parties critical of the government and supporting the electoral interests of the SPD and the Greens.
As news outlet Junge Freiheit rightly points out, Chancellor Friedrich Merz had promised that he would put an end to state funding for politically influential NGOs, but the practice has continued under his centre-right-leftist coalition government.
The orchestrated campaign comes as the AfD leads the latest polling by a substantial margin. A recent poll put the party at 42%, 20 points ahead of the governing CDU at 22%.
If the polling is ultimately reflected in the result, the AfD will achieve its strongest performance in a state election to date, and potentially have the chance to form a government—a prospect the German establishment is dreading.
The AfD has already unveiled an ambitious 100-day government programme, including tougher deportation policies, changes to welfare provision for asylum seekers, cuts to funding for NGOs and party foundations, and reforms to public broadcasting.
