Editorial · Kommando 161 · · 3h
Saxony-Anhalt's new state parliament: The Nazis in suits are not a slip-up
Deutsch (original) · Auto-translated to English
Four days after the AfD's historic election victory in Saxony-Anhalt (43.8 percent, state election on September 6, 2026), top candidate Ulrich Siegmund presented the new 39-member parliamentary group on September 11th - and with it a hodgepodge that even benevolent observers can hardly sell as "bourgeois-conservative", as the Guardian reported. Two members of parliament are under investigation on suspicion of having continued the banned neo-Nazi "Artgemeinschaft", one of them also for possible weapons offenses. A 78-year-old ex-Stasi officer received a direct mandate. Another MP had to admit to having appeared in porn films and forging his high school diploma. Research by ZDF also shows connections between several future ministers to the banned “Heimattreuen Deutschen Jugend” (HDJ) – one of them even headed it.
Siegmund himself reacted to the revelations by jokingly referring to the affected MPs as “the bad guys”. This nonchalance is the real scandal. Anyone who gets 43.8 percent no longer has to worry about the consequences - the "firewall" of the other parties remains intact for the time being because the CDU, SPD, Greens and Left reject a coalition with the AfD. But it is precisely this faction, with documented neo-Nazi networks in its own ranks, that will now be allowed to have a say in the police, justice, education and social policy in a German state parliament.
At a press conference, Siegmund caused an additional stir when he linked arms production in the country directly to the party's deportation plans: "Appropriate resources for the future remigration and deportation offensive" were needed, literally. SPD parliamentary group leader Katja Pähle rightly called this a “political threat” that was reminiscent of totalitarian role models. This is not a rhetorical exaggeration - anyone who mentions deportations in the same breath as weapons production and "internal security" is designing a state project, not an immigration policy.
For the radical left and anti-fascist structures in Saxony-Anhalt, this means: the threat is no longer abstract. Advice centers for refugees, migrant communities, trans and queer people, left-wing cultural projects – they all now know exactly who they are dealing with if administrative decisions, police operations or funding allocations go differently in the future. The point is not whether the AfD formally gets enough votes to form a government - it is three seats short of an absolute majority, and BSW has already signaled its willingness to talk. The point is that a party with documented neo-Nazi cadres is now shaping parliamentary majorities, regardless of who ends up in power.
The more than 20 anti-AfD demonstrations planned for this weekend in Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and elsewhere are right and necessary - but they must not stop at symbolic distancing. Anyone who still believes that the AfD can be treated as a normal rival party and at the same time react to its cadre scandals with outrageous journalism has not understood this week's message: the party has the recruiting base, the network and now also the mandate to bring neo-Nazi structures directly into state institutions. Organizing from below remains the only answer that works.
Sources
The Guardian: Saxony-Anhalt election result coverage
bpb.de: State election in Saxony-Anhalt 2026: AfD strongest force
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Source: Kommando 161