‘It breaks my heart’: far-right’s big election victory sparks dismay in German state capital

• 01The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party won approximately 44% of the vote in the Saxony-Anhalt election.
• 02The AfD’s 100-day program states that the party will deport individuals classified as "irregular migrants" from the first moment it assumes power.
• 03Maryam, whose family moved to Germany from Syria, expressed fear of deportation, noting her family must renew residency permits every three years and she cannot read or write Arabic.
• 04Doreen, a 54-year-old cleaner, stated she supported the AfD "out of a sense of desperation" and criticized Ukrainian refugees for arriving in "fancy cars" and wearing designer clothes.
• 05Doreen expressed hope that the AfD would end refugee status for Ukrainians and stop aid to Kyiv.
• 06A Stolperstein in Magdeburg commemorates Ernst Fliess, a Jewish lawyer born in 1877 who committed suicide after being humiliated and disenfranchised.
• 07Doreen rejected comparisons between the AfD’s rise and the Weimar-era rise of the Nazis, stating, "We are in a different age, with different problems."
• 08Ernst and Judith Jäker, an elderly couple married for 64 years, voted for the far-left Die Linke; Judith cited her own history of fleeing Silesia in 1945 as the reason for her empathy toward refugees.
• 09Voting data indicated a significant drop in support for the AfD among voters over the age of 70.
• 10Christiane and Franz Josef Jäker criticized populist parties for promising unfulfillable goals and suppressing information about the war in Ukraine to argue for resumed Russian gas imports.
• 11Eric, a 21-year-old paramedic with a Guinean father, had spent 10 years applying for a German passport before receiving it.

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The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) won approximately 44% of the vote in the Saxony-Anhalt election, triggering fear among immigrant residents regarding potential deportations under the party's new 100-day program. While some voters like Doreen supported the AfD due to economic desperation and anti-immigrant sentiments, others, including elderly residents with historical ties to displacement, condemned the party’s platform. The result highlights a generational divide in voting patterns and intensified debate over Germany's immigration policies and its stance on the conflict in Ukraine.