Four German migrant organizations urged Chancellor Friedrich Merz and state leaders to establish protections for minorities ahead of a possible Saxony-Anhalt government involving the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).
The AfD won 43.8% of the vote and 39 of 83 seats in the state’s Sept. 6 election, official results show. It fell three seats short of a majority. Saxony-Anhalt’s domestic intelligence agency classifies the party’s state branch as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization.
In an Oct. 19 open letter, the organizations proposed a federal-state commission to assess risks to minorities and assign responsibility, funding and deadlines for protective measures. They want the commission established before any government involving the AfD takes office. The groups said such a government could shape decisions affecting police, schools and security.
The letter also calls for an exception to residence restrictions when a person faces a concrete racist, antisemitic, anti-Roma, anti-Muslim or right-wing extremist threat. The exception would allow a move to a safer location, including another German state, before an attack occurs.
For threatened nonprofit and community organizations, the groups propose direct federal grants to improve security and arrange advice, emergency plans or short-term protection. Under their proposal, state authorities would not have to approve or contribute funding for those grants. The letter cites €22 million in federal funding for Jewish institutions after the 2019 Halle attack as a precedent.
One signatory, Landesnetzwerk Migrantinnenorganisationen Sachsen-Anhalt (LAMSA), said its Entknoten counseling service had handled 85 cases involving racist incidents so far in 2026, compared with 81 in all of 2025. Those are the service’s reported caseload figures. The other signatories are Türkische Gemeinde in Deutschland, Bundeskonferenz der Migrantinnenorganisationen and Dachverband der Migrant*innenorganisationen in Ostdeutschland.
The groups asked state leaders to discuss the proposals at their Oct. 22 meeting and requested a written response within 14 days. They said they would publicly track what governments agree to and implement, at the latest by the interior ministers’ meeting in December.
