Far Right Is Poised to Win in a German State, but Fight Over Power Won’t End There

Far Right Is Poised to Win in a German State, but Fight Over Power Won’t End There - The New York Times

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Far Right Is Poised to Win in a German State, but Fight Over Power Won’t End There

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/30/world/europe/germany-afd-saxony-anhalt.html

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Far Right Is Poised to Win in a German State, but Fight Over Power Won’t End There

State and federal leaders are trying to avoid sharing sensitive intelligence with the Alternative for Germany should it take power in a state’s elections next week.

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!A blue "AfD" canopy and political stand on a city sidewalk where several people gather around and talk.

*The Alternative for Germany campaigning in Berlin on Wednesday. The party is expected to do well in another part of Germany in elections on Sept. 6., possibly enough to take power there.

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Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters*

By

Christopher F. Schuetze and Jim Tankersley

Reporting from Berlin

Aug. 30, 2026, 5:00 a.m. ET

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Government leaders across Germany are publicly and privately exploring ways to curb the power of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, if it wins control of a state government in elections on Sept. 6.

The officials’ efforts, detailed in interviews and in statements by top officials, include attempts to throttle the routine sharing of certain classified information with state-level intelligence services should the AfD win control of them. They also involve less onerous measures aimed at policy matters. The planning is driven partly out of fear that AfD officials could pass national secrets to Russia, to which the party maintains close ties.

The AfD is poised to win the most votes in Sept. 6 elections in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany’s east. If it secures enough seats to form a governing coalition by itself, it will become the first far-right party since World War II to hold power in Germany.

Governing a state would typically grant a party access to national secrets, including about intelligence and security.

Many officials seeking to curb the AfD’s power see it as a threat to German democracy and national security, and say their plans are necessary to safeguard the country. Protection of democracy is a particularly sensitive issue in Germany, which after World War II designed its institutions to prevent extreme parties like the Nazis from ever returning to power.

The AfD’s rival parties consider it extreme. No other major party in Germany will work with it to form a government at the state or national level, a collusion that is known in Germany as “the firewall” and that the AfD has long assailed.

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