National mainstream leaders have also weighed proposals to potentially cut off federal funding to Saxony-Anhalt that would be part of the so-called fiscal equalization system, which moves money to poorer states from wealthier ones. That funding, which for Saxony-Anhalt amounted to €2.8 billion in 2025, could theoretically be cut for rule-of-law concerns, although legal hurdles are high.
But the AfD says it is prepared to take action against such efforts.
The AfD’s national party leaders created a “Working Group on Government Participation” to begin drafting bills that could be passed in the state legislature and to weigh how the party, both federally and on state level, could work to block possible attempts to obstruct an AfD-led state government using the courts.
“We have received significant support from the party leadership,” said Martin Reichardt, the leader of the AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt branch. “We also have the legal department, which is, of course, active as well. And it has prepared for situations where our political opponents might, for example, try to obstruct our work in government,” he added. “We will defend ourselves against this through appropriate legal means.”
Despite such plans, Gordon Köhler, an AfD politician from Saxony-Anhalt who was present at the Salzburg meeting with FPÖ officials, said his party wanted to avoid the kind of fever-pitch polarization that followed President Donald Trump’s return to power for a second term in the U.S.
While the AfD wants a crackdown on asylum-seekers, he said, the party doesn’t want the kind of images of chaos and violence that have occurred with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations on American streets.
“I’d like to call this a tension — on the one hand, taking swift action, but on the other hand, of course, governing well and building bridges,” Köhler said. “We won’t reach everyone — you’ll never succeed in that — but the point is for things to be a bit less tense and not as highly emotional as they are right now.”
After all, he added, “a society must function somehow. And if everyone’s always on edge, that’s obviously not healthy for anyone.”
