Ulrich Siegmund aims to become AfD's first state premier

Ulrich Siegmund is campaigning to make the Alternative for Germany the strongest party in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday and become the AfD's first state premier.

The 35-year-old has built a large following on TikTok, Instagram and other platforms, presenting a youthful and approachable face for the far-right party at campaign events, “family picnics” and motorcycle outings.

Siegmund entered the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament in 2016 and became co-leader of the AfD parliamentary group in 2021. He was recently elected as the party's top candidate with 97 percent support.

His critics warn that his public style masks radical positions. He has vowed to deport irregular migrants “from minute one” if he comes to power.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency considers the AfD chapter he represents to be “right-wing extremist” with links to ethno-nationalist groups and think-tanks.

Siegmund was present at a 2023 secret meeting near Berlin where extreme right-wing activists discussed a radical “remigration” plan to expel millions of people with a migration background. The revelation cost him a committee chairmanship in the state parliament, but he has dismissed the meeting as a “Kaffee Klatsch,” or casual social gathering.

Several of his staffers and party colleagues are former members of the banned neo-Nazi group Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend. Siegmund defended his team to Welt daily, saying they had clean records and that he was not interested in what happened 20 or 25 years ago.

Siegmund was born in Saxony-Anhalt shortly after German reunification and lives in Tangermuende with his wife and daughter. He first joined the conservative CDU before switching in 2014 to the newly founded AfD.

He told AFP that his plans to make the state less multicultural, less “woke” and more pro-family and patriotic would help bring expatriate Germans back and rebuild the economy.