World News
Christian leaders in Saxony-Anhalt campaign against AfD platform ahead of state elections
Protestant and Catholic leaders condemn the far-right party's platform targeting church funding, while the AfD leads in state polls.
The short version
- Catholic and Protestant church leaders in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt are mounting campaigns against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of the September 6, 2026 state election.
- The AfD's state platform proposes ending direct state payments to Christian churches, abolishing state-managed church tax collection, requiring churches to cover asylum costs, and cutting funding for the Protestant Academy.
- Church leaders warn that the AfD promotes ethnonationalist policies, while the AfD argues the churches have abandoned their mission and engaged in political agitation.
- The primary uncertainty is whether the church campaigns will influence voter support for the AfD, which currently holds a commanding lead in state polling.
Key facts
- Catholic and Protestant churches in Saxony-Anhalt are displaying banners and delivering sermons opposing the AfD ahead of the state election scheduled for September 6, 2026.[Deutsche Welle]
- Germany's domestic intelligence agency classifies the Saxony-Anhalt branch of the AfD as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization.[Deutsche Welle]
- The AfD's state government program adopted in April calls for ending state payments to churches, eliminating public collection of church tax, cutting state funds for the Protestant Academy of Saxony-Anhalt, and holding churches financially responsible for church asylum.[Deutsche Welle]
- Catholic Magdeburg Bishop Gerhard Feige and Protestant Bishop Friedrich Kramer publicly criticized the AfD platform, describing its messaging as ethnonationalist.[Deutsche Welle]
- The AfD's platform describes Islam as a religion foreign to German culture and calls for restricting religious freedom to appropriate limits.[Deutsche Welle]
- More than 85% of Saxony-Anhalt's population has no religious affiliation, while 10% identify as Protestant and 3% as Catholic.[Deutsche Welle]
What remains uncertain
- It remains uncertain whether the opposition from Christian leadership will impact the AfD's leads in regional polling or affect state election outcomes on September 6.[Deutsche Welle]