Boom Or Disaster
Germany's far-right AfD has promised an "economic boom" if it wins Sunday's regional elections and ends up ruling the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, but economists warn their policies would spell disaster. The Alternative for Germany wants to make the ex-communist region a test case for its key ideas, including deporting irregular migrants and reversing a rapid buildup of renewable energy.
Ahead of Sunday's vote, the AfD has polled at over 40 percent, harnessing widespread discontent and anger at Berlin, enough to easily win, and to possibly allow it to rule alone. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned that the small state of 2.1 million people would be "considerably damaged" by a far-right government. "I can't imagine that international investors will want to come to break ground at a new factory alongside an AfD state premier," said Merz.
2.2 billion euro funding gap
The AfD's top state candidate Ulrich Siegmund promised "an economic boom here in Saxony-Anhalt under an AfD-led government" with "new jobs" and "value creation." He argued an AfD government would attract big companies by offering them "long-term planning certainty free from climate mandates or quota requirements."
But the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Halle compared the costs and funding sources in the AfD manifesto and calculated a "massive funding gap" of at least 2.2 billion euros per year. Institute president Reint Gropp told AFP the plans are "irrelevant in terms of economic policy" and predicted they "will not be implemented." Economists warn that deterring foreign workers through xenophobic rhetoric would only accelerate a skilled labour shortage in the state whose population is already greying and shrinking.
The state now accounts for 1.8 percent of Germany's economic output. Last year, its nominal GDP per capita was 38'452 euros, the lowest of all German states.