A politician from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been branded the “most dangerous man in Germany,” weeks before an election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt that could make him the far-right party’s first ever state premier.
The latest edition of the famous Spiegel weekly magazine on Friday pictured the AfD’s Ulrich Siegmund on its cover with the “most dangerous” label.
At a campaign event on Friday, Siegmund told a journalist that the cover was “very good publicity” for him. He also shared a video on his Instagram account showing him signing copies of the magazine.
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The anti-immigrant AfD has never participated in a governing coalition in Germany’s 16 states or its federal government, as all other mainstream parties refuse to work with it, a policy famously known as the “firewall.”
Despite the party branch in Saxony-Anhalt being branded a confirmed case of right-wing extremism by domestic intelligence, it stands a serious chance of securing an outright majority in the election on September 6, depending on whether several minor parties fail to achieve the 5% threshold needed to win seats in the state parliament in Magdeburg.
The latest poll from the state this week showed the AfD on a record 43% of the vote, 20 points ahead of its next challenger.