Saxony-Anhalt Voted for the AfD: What the Party Program Actually Says

Saxony-Anhalt voted for the AfD, and the internet did the impossible in a single evening. It loaded every Ukrainian onto a train, handed out suitcases and drew up the route. Screaming. Panic. Hand-wringing. And almost nobody did the most boring and most important thing: open the party's program and read it.

We did. Grab some popcorn and read along. No hysterics required.

There Is No "Ukrainians, Go Home" Line

Search with a magnifying glass. Search with a flashlight. You will not find it. What you will find are two points that sent half the internet into hysterics and gave the other half a second wind.

Let's take them one by one. The devil, as usual, is in the details. The hysteria, as usual, is in the headlines.

Point One: No Contribution, No Benefits

The idea is almost indecently simple. You haven't worked a single year in Germany? You haven't put a cent into the common pot? Then don't expect social benefits. Paid in, you get paid out. Didn't pay in, you wait.

Now the key part. Passport and nationality play no role here. Arab, Indian, Ukrainian or German, one rule for everyone. Think about that. A rule that applies to everyone equally has been declared discrimination. Apparently discrimination now means nobody gets exceptions.

And for those who skim: this is not about Ukrainians. It is about anyone who arrived and contributed nothing. A German stands in that line on exactly the same terms. The headlines don't mention it. It clicks worse.

Point Two: Serious Crime, Goodbye

No frills here either. We are not talking about a chocolate bar lifted from a supermarket. We are talking about serious crimes. Commit one and you are out. Again, regardless of nationality.

So the party looks not at the color of your passport but at what you did. Sensation: the law is proposed to apply to those who break it. Everyone faint in unison.

A Thought Experiment for the Easily Shocked

Forget politics for a moment. This is just an exercise for the imagination. Imagine that in your country the benefit is €500 and health insurance pays for treatment even of cancer. All of it is due to people holding a local passport. Those people have paid into this system for years and know where the money comes from.

And one fine day a person arrives from a completely different country and receives exactly the same package. You go to work in the morning. He goes to the trough. Question: how many Maidans would already have happened on your street?

So the Germans, it turns out, are not made of iron either. They also want the one who pays to receive and the one who doesn't to wait. What outrageous nerve.

Two Sexes and Not One Arms Shipment

On down the list of "fascist horrors." The number of sexes, in the party's view, is two: man and woman. No kaleidoscope of "diversities" and the rest of the zoo. If the word "biology" makes you feel ill, sit down. We will wait.

Now the main point, the one that made European pundits twitch. In the party's view, weapons for Ukraine and other countries should not be shipped at the expense of German taxpayers and the Europeans who work here. The fewer weapons, the sooner the war ends. That is the logic.

You can argue with it. But calling it Nazism? This is arithmetic: whose money it is decides where it goes.

Find the Nazism. We Honestly Looked

We reread the program. Then again. Then we called in colleagues. Same rules for everyone, deportation for grave crimes, two sexes, fewer weapons. Where is the Nazism? Point to it.

We didn't find it. And we suspect those shouting loudest about fascism haven't opened the program either. Why read when you can be outraged right away? It's faster, and it's free.

Who Actually Votes for the AfD

Now the part most inconvenient for headlines. This is not a party of marginals. Its supporters include Russian speakers and native Germans alike, people tired of grinding away for someone else's comfort. Just look at the election result. It sits in open access and isn't going anywhere, however much you complain.

People came and voted. And you are about to write all of them off as Nazis? Bold strategy. Let's see how it plays out.

Give Them a Year

Last point, for those still clutching their hearts. If the AfD are really just populists and can't deliver anything, there is nothing to fear. Give them a year. If they fail, the voter will see it with their own eyes and go back to the old parties. Didn't like it, voted again. No trains required.

Besides, Saxony-Anhalt is not well-fed Bavaria but one of the poorest states in Germany. Promises won't feed anyone there. Either there will be results, or the party faces a hard conversation with the people who chose it. Either way, the drama about trains can wait.

The Bottom Line

Let's sum up the "horrors." One rule on benefits for everyone, whatever the passport. Out for serious crime, whatever the passport. No weapons shipments on the German taxpayer's tab. Two sexes. And voters who are not marginals, but ordinary people who got tired.

That's the entire "fascist" program. Judge for yourself whether it earns the panic, the trains and the suitcases.