Ulrich Siegmund, the 35-year-old candidate from the party for the regional elections on September 6, proclaims, “You are about to enter history!” He promises an election campaign “like Germany has never seen before.”
“The Germans long to rediscover the good old Germany, the one where you don’t have to be afraid when taking the bus,” he explains on the sidelines of the congress. “If we win, our region of Saxony-Anhalt will shine throughout Germany and allow us to achieve our goal of assuming responsibilities at the national level,” he adds.
“The AfD model? ‘Hungary’,” whispers Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, the spokesman for culture. He wants Germans to “regain their identity.” “We need a healthy self-confidence as Elon Musk said [‘It’s OK to be proud to be German’]. This is the heart of our cultural policy. It will give strength to the people and offer them a stable identity,” he summarizes.
For the extreme right in Germany, Donald Trump’s United States is both a model and a source of embarrassment.
The first measure being considered is replacing the regional slogan “modern thinking” (in reference to the iconic Bauhaus architectural school). The AfD wants a different slogan: “think German.” “We need to have a broader view and pay tribute to figures like Otto I [emperor of the Holy Roman Empire] buried in the Magdeburg Cathedral. Where are the German flags around his tomb? And the national ceremonies?” wonders Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, embracing a delegate who passes next to him.
“Never has an AfD program been so radical,” judges Albrecht Steinhäuser, the representative of the Protestant churches at the Saxon-Anhalt parliament. “The choice of words is very revealing of the potential for violence it reveals,” he explains.
“Church, it’s the new enemy of the AfD who promised to cut subsidies and eliminate the collection of ‘church tax’ by the State (Kirchensteuer). ‘The Church is attacking us by saying that you can’t be Christian and vote for AfD’,” justifies Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, accusing it of supporting the ‘rainbow ideology.’ It would lead to an ‘identity crisis.'”
“With 40 to 50 different sexes, what kind of identity do you want? If the peoples of Europe want to survive, they must put an end to this rainbow ideology,” he adds. “This unhealthy spirit, both perverse leftist, radical feminist and individualistic, not only undermines traditional family models and social roles, but goes so far as to deny and criminalize biological reality,” writes the ‘government program.’
The AfD will cut funding for public channels, the ‘breeding ground of disinformation.’ In the field of Education (a prerogative of the regions), compulsory schooling will be abolished and the content of school textbooks controlled. “Children don’t need sections on racism but self-defense classes,” believes Hans-Thomas Tillschneider. “And we should be pleased that Russian is still offered as a foreign language,” adds this admirer of Vladimir Putin, a man who “ensures stability and prosperity in Russia.”
“Essentially, the program remains focused on security with the return of immigrants ‘home,’ the creation of an immigration police called ‘taskforce,’ a sort of unnamed American ICE, and the creation of neighborhood militias. ‘Yes to re-migration!'” echoes Ulrich Siegmund, who assures that the term is misinterpreted by the press. “Our red line is German nationality. Those are not concerned,” he asserts.
Close to the fascist Björn Höcke (qualified by the justice system), Ulrich Siegmund nevertheless took part in the ‘Potsdam conference’ on November 25, 2023, which laid the foundation for a plan to deport millions of ‘non-assimilated German citizens’ to North Africa. Before the Magdeburg congress, a journalist had asked him what he thought of this meeting, which had triggered the largest protests in the country since the fall of the Wall. He had ironically replied, “I’m not against a new little coffee break in Potsdam.”
