OB election | Dismissed AfD committee head wants to lead Leipzig town hall

Alexander Wiesner was dismissed as head of the Constitutional Committee in the state parliament; Now he wants to become the AfD's mayoral candidate in Leipzig. Photo: dpa/Robert Michael You could now paddle into the North Sea from Leipzig city center. This week the last section of the renewed Elstermühlgraben was inaugurated, a historic watercourse that was carried in pipes for decades but has been gradually uncovered again since 2004. Mayor Burkhard Jung (SPD) and his party colleague Dirk Panter came to the opening of the body of water, which flows into the Weiße Elster and from there into the Saale, Elbe and North Sea. The Saxon Ministry of Economic Affairs, led by the latter, funded 75 percent of the construction costs of 6.4 million euros for the last section.

Panter may have been happy to take part in the promotional event in Leipzig for another reason. He wants to succeed Jung when a new mayor is elected in February 2027. After three terms in office, he is no longer allowed to run for office for reasons of age. Panter now faces the challenging task of continuing an SPD phalanx that has existed since 1990 in Saxony's largest city. Jung's predecessors, Wolfgang Tiefensee and Hinrich Lehmann-Grube, were also Social Democrats.

Most of his opponents are already known. The Left had already nominated its cultural mayor Skadi Jennicke in March. In June it was clear that there would be no ministerial duel between Panter and his cabinet colleague Sebastian Gemkow, who is responsible for science. The CDU man, who had brought Jung to the brink of defeat in the 2020 mayoral election, abdicated and let council faction leader Michael Weickert go first. The Greens at least nominated a former minister, Wolfram Günther. The BSW relies on state parliament member Eric Recke. The AfD, which is one of the three strongest factions in the city council with twelve seats, does not want to nominate an applicant until September 26th.

Wiesner's ex-employees, who are suspected of right-wing coup plans, were again tried in a Dresden court this week.

At the moment it looks as if this could be a man who appreciates the Elstermühlgraben. He was “a big fan of canoeing and paddling,” said state parliament member Alexander Wiesner in an interview with “Radio Dresden,” in which he expressed his determination to run for office. He has also known “the city and its people for 20 years” and has “certain roots” in Leipzig.

With these arguments, the 37-year-old sought to score points in an internal party duel with an important opponent that was temporarily in the offing. The AfD city executive courted Tino Chrupalla, the federal spokesman and head of the Bundestag faction, who is based in the Görlitz district. The speculation about the prominent candidate was fueled by the fact that Chrupalla had made himself available as the face of an AfD fundraising campaign for the Leipzig mayoral election. A few days ago, however, he rejected the city association, as its boss Siegbert Droege regretfully announced.

This increases the chances for Wiesner - which means that the party, which is classified as right-wing extremist in Saxony, would nominate a candidate who has attracted attention in the past due to his proximity to right-wing terror. As a member of the state parliament, he temporarily employed two party friends against whom the case was being heard again this week in a trial that has been ongoing since January at the Dresden Higher Regional Court. They are accused of having pursued plans for a coup as members of the “Saxon Separatists,” which the Federal Prosecutor General has classified as right-wing terrorists. They are said to have planned to use armed force to establish a Nazi-style state in parts of East Germany and to carry out ethnic cleansing.

Wiesner's two ex-employees are Kurt Hättasch, who was elected to the Grimma city council in June 2024, and Kevin R, who is also involved in local politics. Both were active in the former AfD youth organization Junge Alternative (JA), which was dissolved in September 2025, and whose state chairman Wiesner was from 2020 to 2024. This was also classified as proven right-wing extremist.

After the arrest of his two employees on suspicion of terrorism in November 2024, Wiesner terminated his employment, but otherwise appeared to be clueless. Nevertheless, he lost an influential position in the state parliament because of it. After the state elections in 2024, he was appointed by his parliamentary group as chairman of the Committee on Constitution, Law and Europe. In March 2025 he was recalled with the votes of a parliamentary majority. The corresponding motion, which was submitted by the CDU and SPD and which was also approved by the Left, the Greens and parts of the BSW parliamentary group, said that there was a risk of “significant damage” to the reputation of the committee. In addition, there is a lack of “basis of trust” for Wiesner to adequately fulfill his duties as committee chairman. It remains to be seen how big his trust would be as head of Leipzig's town hall.

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