At 36, Ulrich Siegmund has become the face of the Alternative for Germany's strongest push yet to win outright control of a German state government. As the party's lead candidate for Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt ahead of the September 6 election, he is polling well over 40 percent, putting the AfD roughly twenty points ahead of the Christian Democrats in second place.
That lead has turned a regional contest into a national story, with Siegmund's rise being watched closely in Berlin as a test of how far the party's support can translate into actual governing power in one of Germany's sixteen states.
From CDU to AfD's Rising Star
Siegmund grew up in Tangermünde, in Saxony-Anhalt, and began his political career inside the CDU before switching to the AfD during the eurozone debt crisis. He entered the state parliament in 2016, but it was during the Covid-19 pandemic, as the party's health policy spokesman, that his profile grew sharply, as he built a large online following with videos criticizing pandemic restrictions and what he cast as exaggerated warnings from officials and parts of the media.
State broadcaster MDR has described him as a tightly disciplined communicator who carefully manages his public image, a trait widely credited with helping him connect with crowds at campaign rallies in a way few other AfD figures nationally have managed.
The Remigration Controversy
Siegmund's rise has not been free of controversy. He was among the attendees at a 2023 meeting near Potsdam that drew national scrutiny after investigative outlet Correctiv reported it brought together AfD officials, far right influencers and businessmen to discuss a mass deportation concept known as remigration, a term that in parts of the party's base has been used to suggest expelling immigrants regardless of citizenship status.
Siegmund has said his own position is narrower, backing the deportation of failed asylum seekers rather than stripping citizenship from naturalized Germans. On the campaign trail he has nonetheless embraced hardline language on migration, telling party members the AfD stands for what he calls consistent deportations, a message that has become a central plank of his campaign.
Why It Matters
A Siegmund led government in Saxony-Anhalt would mark the first time the AfD has won a state election outright, a milestone that would test the limits of the political firewall other German parties have maintained against the far right and add fresh pressure on Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition in Berlin over whether that strategy can hold.
Whatever the outcome in September, Siegmund's trajectory, from a regional CDU defector to the face of the AfD's strongest bid yet for real governing power, illustrates how quickly the party's fortunes have shifted in the parts of eastern Germany where it now polls as the clear front runner.