THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
Saxony-Anhalt goes to the polls on Sunday with the AfD far ahead in the surveys. A strong result could have consequences well beyond the eastern German state – particularly for the national debate on migration and the future of Germany’s political centre.
Saxony-Anhalt votes on 6 September 2026 in an election being watched closely across Germany. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is clearly ahead in the polls and is seeking what would be a historic breakthrough by becoming the first far-right party to lead a state government in post-war Germany.
The latest ZDF/Forschungsgruppe Wahlen survey puts the AfD at 41 per cent, compared with 23 per cent for the CDU. The Left Party stands at 11.5 per cent, SPD at 8.5 per cent and Greens at 6 per cent. FDP and BSW are below the five-per-cent threshold. Because parties below five per cent are normally excluded from the distribution of seats, the AfD could potentially obtain an absolute majority of seats with considerably less than 50 per cent of the vote, installing Germany’s first-ever AfD state premier.
A test for Friedrich Merz
The election has become a national political test for Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the CDU. A major AfD victory would strengthen the argument that Germany’s established parties are losing voters, particularly in the east, and could intensify pressure within the CDU over how aggressively to challenge the AfD on migration and other issues. Analysts describe the September state elections as potentially weakening Merz’s federal coalition and complicating its reform agenda.
The consequences could also reach the Bundesrat, Germany’s federal upper chamber. State governments participate in federal legislation through the Bundesrat, meaning a change of government in Magdeburg can eventually influence national legislation.
Why migrants are watching closely
Each of the country’s 16 states elects its own parliament and government, with real powers over policing, education and, crucially, how asylum and integration rules are applied locally. A state election result therefore carries direct, everyday consequences for residents with a migration background, not just symbolic ones.
Migration has been one of the central campaign issues, while the AfD advocates substantially tighter immigration policies, increased deportations and a policy it describes as “remigration”.
Around 193,000 foreign citizens lived in Saxony-Anhalt at the end of 2025, with people from African countries accounting for about one in ten of the state’s foreign population. International students, healthcare workers, skilled employees and entrepreneurs are increasingly important to the state’s economy.
An AfD-led state government could therefore affect migrants through decisions within state responsibilities, including schools, police, public administration, integration measures and aspects of local social policy. Even though asylum law, citizenship and most immigration rules remain primarily federal responsibilities, a governing AfD would likely tighten local enforcement and embolden similar campaigns in neighbouring Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, all due to vote within the next three years.
Generally, a strong AfD showing would shift the country’s political centre of gravity further right, embolden anti-migrant currents nationally, and test whether Germany’s other parties hold their line against the AfD, or start quietly looking for ways around it. And how secure people with migration backgrounds feel in the country they call home.
Felix Dappah
