In September's state elections, the AfD could enter government for the first time. The party has set up a special task force to prepare. The biggest hurdle remains finding qualified leadership personnel.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is gearing up for the 2026 state elections in September, where it could potentially take on government responsibility for the first time. According to an analysis in Junge Freiheit, the party has established a special 'task force' to prepare for assuming power positions. The core issue: The AfD lacks suitable leadership personnel with sufficient experience.
In the recent local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, the AfD doubled its mandates from about 1000 to around 2000. Nevertheless, it holds no mayoral positions, attributed to the so-called firewall by other parties, which creates a de facto two-party system. Commentators stress that the AfD is better staffed personnel-wise than established parties, which, despite governing, are struggling with the republic's decline.
Criticism of the Scholz government's competence is frequently voiced: Ministers like Annalena Baerbock, Robert Habeck, or Karl Lauterbach are said to represent mainly ideology, not expertise. For the AfD: No regulation requires a party membership card for government members; expertise is key. Yet observers doubt the AfD's program in Saxony-Anhalt, criticized as unrealistic. Experts like Hans Werner Sinn have attested economic competence to Alice Weidel and rated the party program as not hostile to business.
Strategically, the AfD is hindered in building experience for its supporters in administration, as they are often discriminated against in public sector jobs. At the federal level, it looks better, but at the state level, thinner. The debate centers on the AfD's ability to offer realistic solutions without fostering radical tendencies.
