Right-wing AfD threatens eastern Germany's energy transition

Hannes Loth drives an electric car and wants to install wind turbines in his municipality.

Loth, Germany's first full-time mayor from the right-wing, populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), is promoting the expansion of renewable energy — even though it runs counter to his party's platform.

The farmer has been mayor of Raguhn-Jeßnitz since 2023 and has ambitious plans. In the town of around 8,600 people in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, he wants to build a battery storage facility with a substation, and six new wind turbines.

Tilo Hörtzsch, a local councilor for the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Raguhn-Jeßnitz, confirmed the plans. "Mr. Loth isn't someone who brings ideology into everything," the owner of a local electrical engineering company told DW. "We need these key technologies in Saxony-Anhalt — they're important."

Fears of a policy reversal

With the AfD's polling numbers rising ahead of the state election in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6, Hörtzsch fears the state could reverse course politically.

"I'm worried we could end up taking a step backwards," he said.

His concerns are not unfounded. In its election manifesto for Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD pledges to "halt the coal phase-out, initiate a return to nuclear power and end energy-related sanctions against Russia." It also wants to impose a moratorium on new wind turbines and a halt to the admission of non-EU nationals.

According to the latest opinion polls, the AfD — led by its top candidate Ulrich Siegmund — is polling at around 41% in Saxony-Anhalt. The CDU's candidate, incumbent state premier Sven Schulze, is on around 26%, according to infratest dimap, a polling institute.

Saxony-Anhalt is one of Germany's pioneers in the transition to renewable energy. Thanks to its extensive wind and solar power capacity, renewable sources accounted for 57% of the state's gross electricity consumption in 2025, according to the German Environment Agency . By comparison, the nationwide figure was 55%.

Wind power faces political headwinds

It's something of a paradox: The eastern German states of Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are among the country's leaders in expanding renewable energy, yet they are also where the AfD has made significant electoral gains.

For pollster Roland Abold, managing director of infratest dimap, economic issues such as the state's energy mix "play a relatively minor role in the voting decisions of AfD supporters in Saxony-Anhalt."

"According to our latest survey from May 2026, the issues voters in Saxony-Anhalt consider most important are refugees and asylum policy, followed by education and the economy," he told DW.

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Johannes Kieß, a researcher specialising in right-wing extremism at Leipzig University, offers another explanation.

"When it comes to energy policy, the AfD's electoral success is not driven by constructive or innovative policy proposals," he said. Instead, he argues, the party's appeal is built on emotion, mobilising resentment directed both at "those at the top" — the political establishment — and "those at the bottom" — perceived outsiders.

Coal instead of wind power

The picture is different when it comes to the economy. Businesses say their biggest challenges are the shortage of skilled workers and high energy prices.

While Saxony-Anhalt's coalition government of the CDU and the Social Democrats (SPD) is betting on expanding renewable energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and volatile energy prices, the AfD is backing fossil fuels instead.

Business leaders and economists have therefore cautioned against the AfD entering government.

For Daniel Hannemann, chief executive of battery storage manufacturer Tesvolt, based in the eastern German town of Wittenberg, the party's migration policy is "economically damaging." He recently told the newspaper Volksstimme that "a climate of isolation" would make it harder to recruit staff and maintain international business relationships.

In his view, however, the party's energy policy proposals would be even more damaging.

"Anyone who slows the expansion of wind power, questions the legal support framework for renewable energy or seeks to roll back climate commitments is directly harming companies like Tesvolt," Hannemann said.

Damage to the economy?

According to right-wing extremism researcher Kieß, the AfD's program is not only "unrealistic," but it would also "have severe negative consequences for Saxony-Anhalt's economy and energy security," he told DW in a statement.

At a state parliament session in late June, State Premier Schulze took aim at his election rival, Ulrich Siegmund. He argued that many of the AfD's campaign promises concerned issues that could not be decided at the state level.

"Scrapping the CO2 tax and subsidies for electric cars, withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, or bringing back nuclear power — if you want to achieve that through the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament), you need 35 votes. Saxony-Anhalt has four."

Meanwhile, AfD mayor Hannes Loth is trying to secure state approval for the construction of wind turbines in his municipality before it may be too late. Under Saxony-Anhalt's rules, municipalities receive €0.3 ($0.34) per kilowatt-hour generated by approved wind farms.

Loth's request for approval landed on Schulze's desk. "At first I thought it was a joke," Schulze told the state parliament. "But the letter in which Mr. Loth asks me to support his plan to build six new wind turbines in his forest really does exist. I have it right here in front of me."

This piece was originally published in German.

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