Small German leftist party emerges as potential far-right kingmaker

MAGDEBURG, Germany, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The far-right Alternative ‌for Germany (AfD) could ​end up ​forming its first state government with the help of a small leftist party that shares its hostility both to mass immigration and to the mainstream parties' efforts to exclude more radical parties from ‌power.

The AfD surged into first place in Sunday's state election in the eastern state of ⁠Saxony-Anhalt but fell just short of an absolute majority, with 39 of 83 seats in the regional legislature.

While mainstream parties, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz's ‌CDU conservatives, have long refused to ‌work with the AfD, in a policy known as the "firewall", the far-left BSW reaffirmed its readiness to play kingmaker after it cleared the 5% threshold to enter Saxony-Anhalt's state parliament.

"We've made no secret from the beginning that ​we'll talk with all parties. The AfD is part of that," Thomas Schulze, the BSW party's lead candidate in the Saxony-Anhalt state election, told Reuters on Monday.

Schulze said the mainstream parties' refusal to work with the AfD ⁠was "undemocratic". Germany's domestic intelligence agency has branded the AfD as "extremist".

UPENDING GERMANY'S CONSENSUS

As well as their hostility to Germany's political establishment and their social conservatism, the two ​parties share a number of priorities, including a hostility to mass migration - which the BSW says harms local workers' rights - suspicion of the mainstream media and a desire to end ​financial and military support for Ukraine and restore ties with Russia.

"Hopefully, ‌there are now majorities in the Magdeburg state parliament in favour of a change of course in energy policy, an end to sanctions against Russia, better education and a fundamental ⁠reform of public service broadcasting," party founder Sahra Wagenknecht said in a statement.

"The BSW intends to use these majorities to improve people's lives."

The BSW was founded in 2024 by Wagenknecht and nine others who had broken away from Die Linke (the Left), the main far-left ⁠party in Germany and heir to the old East German Communist Party.

Despite its ideological hostility, the BSW in late 2024 joined a ​coalition with Merz's conservatives and the Social Democrats in the neighbouring eastern German state of Thuringia.

But the situation there has become complicated after a row over working with the CDU prompted local members to break away from the main party and form their own ‌group. Wagenknecht herself has favoured working instead with the AfD.

The AfD came first in Thuringia's state election, too, but fell well short of a majority and was unable to ‌persuade other parties there to join it in a coalition government.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD's Siegmund said on Sunday evening that the BSW ⁠was "not part of the solution but part of ‌the problem".

For now, however, Schulze remains ​supportive of the far-right in Saxony-Anhalt.

"The AfD won the election, Mr Siegmund is the winner. It's his job to form a government," he said.

(Reporting by Susanne Neumayer-Remter, Christine Uyanik, James MackenzieEditing by ‌Gareth Jones)

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