Voters in Saxony-Anhalt elect state parliament; first-ever far-right may form government

Voters in Saxony-Anhalt elect state parliament; first-ever far-right may form government

Election in Saxony-Anhalt: a test for democracy | unisg.ch

Back Opinions - 04.09.2026 - 15:00 Election in Saxony-Anhalt: a test for democracy This Sunday, Saxony-Anhalt in Germany will elect a new state parliament. For the first time, a party classified as far-right could assume government responsibility in a federal state. How well a democracy can cope with this depends in part on the strength of its institutions and whether they are protected. By Tina Freyburg. Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s lead candidate for Saxony-Anhalt

Why HSG? Why HSG? Overview Engaged community Great career opportunities Superb study programmes HSG Best Talents

Programmes Programmes Overview Bachelor Master Doctorate

Exchange programmes Exchange programmes Overview Incoming Guest Students Outgoing HSG Students

Get in touch Get in touch Overview Open Days & Exchanges Campus tours Fairs Offers for schools Services for businesses

Admissions Admissions Overview Admission Bachelor Admission Master Admission Ph.D. Additional Qualification Programmes Recognition of degrees Application deadlines Rematriculation

Studying at HSG Studying at HSG Overview Admitted – what’s next? Semester dates Course choice and exams Costs of an HSG degree Living in St.Gallen Courses

Costs of an HSG degree

Orientation Orientation Overview Advice and support Campus Uni ABCs

Research at HSG Research at HSG Overview Open Science Office Scientific Integrity & Research Ethics Research Support Research Services GSERM - Global School in Empirical Research Methods Prizes and Awards

Scientific Integrity & Research Ethics

GSERM - Global School in Empirical Research Methods

Faculty Faculty Overview Open Faculty Positions Faculty Portal Welcome Center Faculty Development Mid Career Programme Academic Career Development

Research units Research units Overview Schools Institutes Global Centers Centers Strategic research collaboration Transparency

Ph.D. Ph.D. Overview PhD Programme in Management (PMA) Graduate Programme in Economics and Finance (GPEF) Computer Science (DCS) Law (DLS) Organization Studies and Cultural Theory (DOK) International Affairs and Political Economy (DIA) Early Career Programme

PhD Programme in Management (PMA)

Graduate Programme in Economics and Finance (GPEF)

Organization Studies and Cultural Theory (DOK)

International Affairs and Political Economy (DIA)

Research in Focus Research in Focus Overview Elite Quality Index Circular Lab Consumer Spending in Switzerland

Career & Corporate Services Career & Corporate Services Overview Einzelberatung Karriere-Workshops Werkzeuge und Vorlagen Stellenplattform

Career & Corporate Services Overview

HSG Entrepreneurship HSG Entrepreneurship Overview HSG Entrepreneurship Services Ideation Incubation Acceleration Community About us Teaching

Insights and advice for partners from the world of work

Newsroom Newsroom Overview Special Topic HSG Entrepreneurship Special Topic Artificial Intelligence Special Topic Sustainability Media releases Newsletter

Events Events Overview Event calendar Öffentliche Vorlesungen Dies academicus HSG Graduation Days PhD Degree Award Ceremony St.Gallen Symposium START Summit

Publications Publications Overview HSG Focus Brochures Research Platform Alexandria

Video series Video series Overview Impact Awards In the Lab Knowledge Bank Art interviews Academic GIFts Little Green Bags

Podcasts Podcasts Overview HSG Student Podcast Grüezi Amerika. Views from the Sister Republic Meet the CFO HSG Research Insight SQUARE Talks Innovations in Sustainable Finance Machines That Fail Us

Grüezi Amerika. Views from the Sister Republic

About us About us Overview Vision, strategy and values Organisation History Rankings and accreditations Quality development Art at the HSG Advisory offices

HSG at a glance HSG at a glance Overview Numbers lab Research in focus The history of HSG

HSG at a glance Overview

Engagement Engagement Overview Student engagement Responsibility and Sustainability Diversity & Inclusion Regional impact HSG Alumni HSG Foundation

Offers for the public Offers for the public Overview Public Lectures Children’s University HSG SQUARE Experiencing the HSG Info Desk and contact

Offers for the public Overview

Library Library Overview Search and Use Research and publishing Visiting and Studying Contact and Consultation

Schools Schools Overview School of Computer Science School of Economics and Political Science School of Finance School of Humanities and Social Sciences Law School School of Management

School of Economics and Political Science

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Working at HSG Working at HSG Overview Jobs Working in administration Working in Academia Apprenticeship at HSG Life in Switzerland Entry from abroad: First steps

Entry from abroad: First steps

News Studying Research Executive Education Transfer News University

Newsroom Newsroom Events Publications Video series Podcasts

Opinions - 04.09.2026 - 15:00

Election in Saxony-Anhalt: a test for democracy

Rostock-Lichtenhagen, summer 1992: I was a young teenager when images of burning row of flats – home to Vietnamese contract workers and asylum seekers – were seen around the world. A jeering crowd applauded. The question of how people could do such a thing to other people stayed with me and shaped my career. I studied political science – a discipline that emerged in Germany after 1945 partly out of a need to understand the downfall of democracies and to find ways to prevent it.

Today, I am a professor of political science. And once again, the question arises as to how resilient democratic institutions are when political forces that call the very foundations of these institutions into question gain influence. This Sunday, 6 September 2026, Saxony-Anhalt will hold an election for a new state parliament. A party could assume government responsibility whose regional branch has a classification level that indicates it is definitively far-right (against which the AfD is currently taking legal action). The crucial question here is not merely which party receives how many votes. Rather, what happens to democratic institutions when parties come to power whose relationship with these institutions is itself conflictual?

Far-right extremism and the bridge to the middle-class camp

As a schoolgirl, and later as a student, I took to the streets to protest against the NPD, a right-wing extremist party, when the party tripled its membership and sought to demonstrate its strength through marches. Our resistance had an effect, partly because the NPD remained rooted in an openly neo-Nazi milieu – a taboo for the middle classes. As the Federal Constitutional Court confirmed in 2017: the NPD pursues anti-constitutional aims; yet it was not banned because, according to the court, it lacked the political clout to ever realise these aims. In 2024, in a separate proceeding using a newly created legal instrument, the court instead excluded the party – which now calls itself “Die Heimat” – from state party funding for six years. This teaching has not been learnt by the AfD. Its history is regarded by researchers as a “history of radicalisation”: from a party of professors critical of the EU and the economy in 2013 to a force that is, to a large extent, ethno-nationalist. The Institute for Democracy and Civil Society in Jena shows how the NPD paved the way for the AfD: combative terms such as “population replacement”, “established parties” or “passport Germans” originate from the NPD’s lexicon, and even the demonstrative walkout from the plenary session during Holocaust commemorations was first practised by the NPD as early as 2005 in the Saxon state parliament. The difference is that, unlike the NPD, the AfD has built a bridge to the centre-right and is mobilising support in the political centre. A joint study by Philip Manow (University of Bremen) and Hanna Schwander (University of Zurich) shows that the AfD’s electorate is successful in areas where there was already a tradition of voting for the right, rather than primarily amongst those economically disadvantaged. This may trigger an obvious reflex among centrist parties: to align their policies in order to win back voters. However, political science research shows that this backfires. If established parties move closer to the radical right in terms of policy, this paradoxically strengthens the original movement rather than winning back voters. According to a major comparative study by Denis Cohen, Werner Krause and Tarik Abou-Chadi (2023) covering twelve Western European countries and fifty years, the loss of votes to the far right was greatest precisely among those parties that focused most strongly on the far right’s core issues.

Government power and the lack of moderation

Some therefore hope that the AfD will lose its allure as soon as it is actually required to solve problems while in government. Yet a look at Italy serves as a warning against excessive optimism: Giorgia Meloni, who has been Prime Minister of a post-fascist party since 2022, has moderated her stance primarily in areas where she is structurally dependent on doing so – in foreign and fiscal policy, she adheres to the EU and NATO line, not least because Italy relies on EU funding. In domestic policy, by contrast, there is continuity or even a hardening of stance: restrictions on sea rescues, the expansion of executive powers, and the authorisation of neo-fascist marches. In Germany, education and policing are matters for the federal states, as is oversight of the state offices for the protection of the constitution. What this might entail is set out in the AfD’s 2026 government programme for Saxony-Anhalt: abolishing the role of the independent police commissioner; replacing critical educational programmes with “politically neutral” teaching staff; creating new state-directed research institutions; and scrapping equality programmes at universities. Added to this is a domestic intelligence service that no longer “persecutes the opposition” but merely “protects the constitution”. Sooner or later, an AfD state government would oversee the very authority that is currently monitoring it.

What the comparison with the SVP reveals – and what it does not

What can we learn from looking at Switzerland? In comparative party research, the SVP has long been classified as part of Europe’s right-wing nationalist family of parties. Indeed, it shares key topics with the AfD: criticism of migration, EU scepticism, a confrontational communication style, and the same self-portrayal as the champion of “ordinary people” against the urban elite. However, the Zurich-based political scientist Simon Bornschier points to structural differences: the SVP lacks comparable ethno-nationalist ideologues such as Björn Höcke in senior positions; members who have been found by the courts to hold racist views are usually expelled. And at first glance, the answer also seems reassuring: the SVP has been one of the country’s strongest political forces for decades and, at the same time, a part of the federal government. Its integration into the concordance system is seen by many as an example of how institutions can transform political polarisation into cooperation: because the main political forces are generally involved in forming the government and share responsibility, the Swiss system increases the incentive to seek compromises, to resolve conflicts through institutional channels – and to tone down radical demands. However, it does not follow that the inclusion of a polarising party automatically leads to its moderation. As early as 2015, political scientists Daniel Bochsler, Regula Hänggli and Silja Häusermann noted in their study that the concordance model of shared responsibility was largely a thing of the past: as a governing party, the SVP was increasingly resorting to referendums itself, even against compromises for which its own Federal Counci