Saxony-Anhalt: National politics cannot deliver in a Union: it's isolation or EU integration
Election results in Saxony-Anhalt show citizens no longer accept the status quo - The AfD wants to isolate Germany and dismantle the European Union - Volt wants to integrate towards a federal European Union - No single national government can deliver the solutions citizens demand - We need truly European parties and European political leadership.
Brussels September 7, 2026 - Yesterday the German AfD won the regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt by a landslide. No longer a phenomenon in Eastern Germany but across Europe and with key national elections in France, Italy and Poland coming up next year, democratic parties are running out of options after having run out of ideas and the will to move the European project forward a long time ago.
The issue is obvious: Can any individual member state thrive without European integration? Will there be safety from hybrid threats, economic coercion, and war without a European foreign and defense policy? Can any member state really claim to manage who enters and leaves its territory without European border protection and a joint immigration system? Whether it’s start-ups leaving for the US because no member state is willing to give up its national stock exchange or businesses having to register their packaging with 27 authorities to ship to clients in other EU member states - the success of the AfD is the failure of national parties to integrate.
Sven Franck, Co-President of Volt Europa: “The solutions citizens expect from politics, also in Saxony-Anhalt, require a stronger Europe. Show me a national party that is willing to delegate the necessary powers to the European level. What’s holding them back? Their unwillingness paralyzes the continent, giving space to forces such as the AfD. We will only halt their rise with true European parties dedicated to taking the European project forward. We have to choose between isolation and integration.”
Inês Bravo Figueiredo, Co-President of Volt Europa: "The consequences of these elections will not stop at Germany’s borders. At a time when Europe is facing war, hybrid threats and an increasingly dangerous security environment, the rest of Europe depends on Germany being willing and able to stand with its European partners. If Germany turns inward, Europe becomes weaker. We need Volt because Europe cannot afford 27 national security calculations, political hedging or governments putting national interests ahead of our collective security. We need a Europe that acts together, spends together and defends itself together. European security cannot be a matter of political convenience. It must be a commitment.”
With elections in German regions Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin coming up, the question is not whether to abolish the AfD. It’s whether governments will get away with lip-serving populist nationalism with absurd border controls, national egoisms in defense spending and an economic policy in denial of ecological and business realities..
Damian Boeselager, Volt Europa MEP: “The democratic parties need to understand that their own hesitation and foot-dragging have played a major part in this defeat. Those who think in narrow-minded, nationalist terms, drag their feet on reforms and use politics for their own self-promotion end up paving the way for the populists. We can see this clearly in the European Parliament: the strategy of flirting with the right does not work. And the failure to deliver real change has only made the AfD stronger and stronger. It is time for a paradigm shift. We finally need to think more European and more progressively, drive tangible change and offer all democrats a credible way forward. That must be the lesson we take from this state election.”
About Volt
Volt is the first European political party active in over 30 countries and committed to work towards a united, democratic and sustainable Europe. With policies based on innovation, sustainability and social justice, Volt focuses on concrete solutions that draw on examples of European best practice and are adapted to national circumstances. Volt advocates a modern, cosmopolitan society in which the challenges of the future are tackled collectively and without ideological barriers. With numerous elected representatives at local, regional, national and European levels, Volt is one of the fastest-growing political movements in Europe and first true European party.
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