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The 35-year-old who shocked Germany

2026-09-07 15:11:50Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

The 35-year-old who shocked Germany

Ulrich Siegmund is 35 years old and until a few years ago his name was anonymous. But today he has become one of Germany's most talked-about politicians.

Under his leadership, the AfD won the election in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday with 43.8% of the vote, up from 20.8% five years ago. Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU fell to just 17.2%. The AfD took 39 of the 83 seats, just three seats short of an absolute majority. 

It's a historic result: the first time in post-war Germany that a far-right party has won elections to a state parliament. But the paradox is that the man who achieved this did not build his campaign by presenting himself as a wild far-right politician.

Siegmund constructed exactly the opposite image.

He appears on TikTok, takes selfies with voters, drinks beer at local parties and talks about everyday problems. Deutsche Welle describes him as a politician who tries to seem approachable, while his videos reach hundreds of thousands of people. The AP notes that he has packaged a radical program in a more optimistic and less aggressive public image. 

But behind the modern packaging lies a much more radical program.

Siegmund calls for a much tougher anti-immigration policy, increased deportations, restrictions on diversity policies and a work obligation for asylum seekers. His AfD also calls for rapprochement with Russia and an end to support for Ukraine. 

And here his profile becomes more problematic.

Siegmund attended the infamous Potsdam meeting in 2023, where ideas for the large-scale deportation of immigrants and people with a migrant background were discussed. The AfD branch in Saxony-Anhalt, which he represents, has itself been classified by the state's domestic intelligence service as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization. 

Siegmund, however, has realized something that may be much more important for the AfD's future: electoral radicalism can be sold without shouting.

Instead of heavy ideological rhetoric, he has spoken of a Germany that, in his opinion, was once safer, more orderly and more normal. He has used nostalgia for East Germany and resentment towards Berlin, immigration and the federal government to build a much more personal campaign. The AP describes this combination – a friendly face and a radical program – as one of the keys to his success. 

And it worked.

Turnout in the election reached 77.8%, and the AfD attracted a large number of people who had not voted at all five years ago. After the result, Siegmund declared: “We have written history.” 

However, the victory does not automatically mean that the 35-year-old will become prime minister of Saxony-Anhalt.

The AfD is three seats short of an absolute majority and the other main parties continue to refuse to cooperate with it – the so-called Brandmauer, the “defensive wall” against the AfD. Siegmund has invited the other parties to negotiate, but so far none has signaled that they are ready to put him at the head of the government. 

Precisely for this reason, the story of Ulrich Siegmund is not just the story of a 35-year-old who won an East German state.

He could be the AfD's new experiment: no longer the far-right with the far-right look, but a young, smiling politician, very active on TikTok and with plain language, who makes the same agenda much more sellable to the average voter.

And yesterday's result shows that, at least in Saxony-Anhalt, the formula worked.


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