Just nine months before the state election in Saxony-Anhalt, CDU lead candidate Sven Schulze has warned against AfD involvement in the government. He stressed that it would cause immense damage to the state and Germany. Recent polls show the AfD leading.
In an interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, Sven Schulze, the CDU's lead candidate for the Saxony-Anhalt state election, criticized the Alternative for Germany (AfD). He cautioned against AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund and his associates: "People around him who definitely should not be given responsibility. That would inflict an indescribable great damage on the state of Saxony-Anhalt and all of Germany."
The AfD has long been classified as confirmed right-wing extremist in Saxony-Anhalt. A mid-October poll by the Insa institute for the Nius portal showed 40 percent for the AfD, 26 percent for the CDU, 11 percent for the Left Party, and six percent each for the SPD and Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). The Greens and FDP would fail to reach the five-percent threshold and thus not enter the state parliament according to this forecast.
Schulze described the polls as snapshots and stated: "If these numbers came true, Saxony-Anhalt would be virtually ungovernable. My goal is: I want to win the election and be ahead of the AfD." On the so-called firewall against the AfD, he said he does not believe in a coalition solely with BSW, the Left, and SPD. "In my cabinet, there will be no AfD minister and no Left Party minister."
Currently, a coalition of CDU, SPD, and FDP governs Saxony-Anhalt, with the AfD as the second-largest faction in the state parliament. The next election is on September 6.