German Churches Fight Back as AfD Wins 44 Percent in Saxony-Anhalt Election

Christian churches in Germany's Saxony-Anhalt state are pushing back hard after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party secured 44 percent of the vote in the September 6 state election.

Catholic Bishop of Magdeburg Gerhard Feige called the result deeply troubling, warning against what he described as the party's "nationalistic and xenophobic evil spirit." The night before the vote, Magdeburg Cathedral projected anti-AfD messages on its walls, declaring that "true love of one's homeland is not the AfD."

Germany's domestic intelligence agency has classified the AfD's Saxony-Anhalt branch as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization. Church leaders in the region have spent months organizing against the party, coordinating banners, podcasts, rallies, and town halls on democratic values.

The conflict centers on several specific policy clashes. The AfD has pledged to send police into churches to detain refugees and begin deportation proceedings, directly threatening the church asylum program that shelters vulnerable individuals, including Afghans fleeing persecution. The party has also proposed ending state payments to churches and abolishing the collection of church taxes by public authorities.

Bishop Friedrich Kramer of the Protestant church in Central Germany denounced the AfD's rhetoric as "ethnonationalist" and incompatible with Christian values. Some local clergy have gone further, running for office specifically to counter AfD candidates, while churches have fired employees who ran as AfD candidates.

Faith leaders in Saxony-Anhalt have drawn explicit parallels between their current resistance and the role churches played in the 1989 Peaceful Revolution that preceded the fall of the Berlin Wall. The German Catholic Bishops' Conference issued a declaration in 2024 stating that "ethnic nationalism and Christianity are incompatible."

The AfD's response has been to accuse churches of straying from their core mission. AfD politician Hans-Thomas Tillschneider argued that churches should focus on prayer rather than politics, while simultaneously advocating for a Germany shaped by Christian history.

The election result marks a significant test for both the church's political influence and the future of refugee protection programs in the state.