Election analysis for Saxony-Anhalt | “Never again!” as a constitutional mandate

Bodo Ramelow wants to strengthen rural areas in order to undermine the AfD. Photo: dpa/Martin Schutt We must acknowledge that there is a fascist mass party that was voted for by large parts of the people in the election in Saxony-Anhalt. Apparently there is no longer any distance from fascism, perhaps it never existed.

For months, all the media focused on this election. Election Sunday was blown up in a dystopian way to mean the end of the world. The polarization led to the largest voter turnout ever in the state. As a democrat, I take note of this as a positive thing, because voters have done what they want and should: they go vote. At the same time, describing the end of the world created the forces that put my party between the millstones. If the supposed salvation from the end of the world is a call for the tactical election of the SPD or the Greens, financed with millions of euros, then that will lead to a loss of votes for us.

Part of democracy is accepting the sovereign's decision as a task. The election was democratic. But not all elected parties are democratic, because the AfD is definitely right-wing extremist in Saxony-Anhalt. She herself makes it clear what she intends to do: she is waging an attack on the media, on social affairs, on migrants, on churches and believers, on democracy.

Bodo Ramelow is a left-wing politician and was Prime Minister of Thuringia twice between 2014 and 2024. In 2025, Ramelow was elected to the Bundestag for a second time and has been its Vice President since March 2025.

The election result could now lead to a situation like the one we experienced in Thuringia in 2020, which led to Prime Minister Thomas Kemmerich (FDP) being unable to act. The AfD, with its Prime Minister candidate Ulrich Siegmund, could not replace the acting Prime Minister Sven Schulze (CDU) in the first two rounds of voting. But in the third round, whoever has a simple majority is elected. So it will depend on whether someone will throw their hat into the ring alongside Siegmund – and who that will be.

If we look for ways to combat the AfD beyond the day, then we have to look at the societal and social realities in Saxony-Anhalt: lowest wages, the oldest population, a decline in the number of employed people and the number of inhabitants, low birth rates, below-average wealth accumulation and the highest rate of school leavers without a qualification. These are facts that show that fears of relegation obscure our view of the future. The federal government's course is exacerbating this. The surveys show high levels of dissatisfaction with Friedrich Merz's government. The fall of his CDU confirms this. Fears of inflation and relegation are rampant.

Instead of creating an inability to act through demonization, we need to talk about concepts that help in rural areas: If kindergartens and schools are facing closure, then educational institutions in cross-generational social spaces as well as non-contributory education and care can be answers. If buses and trains continue to be thinned out, we must offer a mobility guarantee and promise everyone that they can get from the village to the nearest transport hub in two hours. Shared taxis, community buses or car sharing in rural areas are just a few examples of how this can work. Health kiosks, well-trained community nurses, rural outpatient clinics, village and 24-hour shops combined with service facilities for citizens' concerns ... There are many good ideas about how we can think of the country as a village and at the same time make offers for urban districts.

We must develop strategies with unions and works councils to secure production cores, jobs and added value during industrial transformation and also to create a climate for start-ups. We should embed universities and cultural institutions as sources of social vitalization in a climate for self-empowerment. Strengthen self-confidence and help people become self-aware. In concrete terms, this means: more direct democracy, more citizen participation, more co-determination in companies and more emancipation through successful participation from young to old.

It would also be time to create a new all-German awareness and dare to move towards more democracy. According to Section 146 of the Basic Law, we need the population to be invited to vote on our constitution. At the same time, we could expand Article 104a, which regulates the distribution of burdens between the federal and state governments, to include the local level in order to improve the financing of local authorities. Finally, a recast Article 139 could breathe new life into Sunday's mandate. Because the Allies once wrote “Never again!” into our Basic Law, which we should now permanently secure. It would be time for an anti-fascist clause as a building block against the development of a fascist society. And if we look at the Basic Law: How would it be if the people could vote on whether a wealth tax should be applied to enable a social society and whether our country should be made capable of peace instead of war? Would that be asking too much?

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