The good appearance

Dark prospects in Schwerin. The AfD is likely to become the strongest party in the state elections on September 20th

For weeks, the media and politicians have been looking at Saxony-Anhalt with a mixture of fear and fascination. The reason for this is the possibility that the AfD will win an absolute majority of seats in the state elections on September 6th. As a result, the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania that followed a few weeks later fell a little behind. But here too, the AfD is the strongest party in surveys and, with around 35 percent of the vote, is well ahead of the SPD, which is currently the Prime Minister but only has just under 30 percent in the surveys.

The AfD there is led by a dual leadership consisting of Leif-Erik Holm and Enrico Schult. Holm is a trained electrician, later worked as a radio presenter and is currently the economic policy spokesman for the Bundestag parliamentary group. Due to his eloquent demeanor and his experience as a craftsman, he should appeal to a wide audience. Schult is a trained surveyor and has been chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in the Schwerin state parliament since June.

With community festivals, information stands and after-work discussions, the AfD strives to be present in the everyday lives of its voters.

In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, as in most other federal states, the party makes an effort to appear civil, but this image is disrupted by its connections to the right-wing extremist scene. At the end of May, 91 percent of the delegates at the state party conference in Grimmen elected Dario Seifert as general secretary. The 32-year-old Seifert was formerly a member of the NPD youth organization.

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