Magdeburg (Germany) (AFP) – Behind his smile and his ease on social networks, Ulrich Siegmund is pursuing a historic objective: to become the first post-war far-right leader at the head of a German region.

Published on: 03/09/2026 - 10:55

Recently propelled to the front page of the prestigious weekly der Spiegel under the title "the most dangerous man in Germany", Ulrich Siegmund reacted with irony, broadcasting a video in which he dedicates the magazine and promises to reveal after Sunday's elections the amount paid for such advertising.

At 35, he dreams of leading to victory the Alternative for Germany (AfD), an anti-migrant, Russophile party favorable to Donald Trump, which has been ahead in the polls for months - by almost 20 points currently -, the conservatives of Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the current leader of Saxony-Anhalt, Sven Schulze.

For weeks, this tribune with more than 500,000 subscribers on Instagram (his main opponent, Sven Schulze, has 11,400) has been scouring his native region, taking selfies, autographs on cups and t-shirts bearing his image.

Whether during a ride on a Simson, a small moped erected as a symbol of East German identity, jogging or at village festivals with sausages and inflatable castles for children, he serves hands and sometimes offers beers, welcomed like a sort of rockstar by a crowd of all ages.

Ostalgia

“He’s like a good friend,” a 19-year-old participant in one of the events he organized recently told AFP. A confession which illustrates to what extent this slender politician, with blue eyes and a salt-and-pepper lock stuck to the side, knows how to sell himself.

After an apprenticeship in sales and studying economic psychology and business management, he founded a company in Berlin specializing in the distribution of room fragrances, before returning to his homeland, Saxony-Anhalt.

Born three weeks after the reunification of Germany in 1990, he grew up in the picturesque medieval town of Tangermünde and witnessed the growing idealization of the GDR among his fellow citizens in the east, who sometimes displayed the former flag of communist Germany at his meetings.

An Ostalgia that he knows how to use, capitalizing on the feeling of injustice of his voters who consider themselves treated as second-class citizens by their compatriots in the West, considered to be privileged, and in the face of supposedly favored immigrants.

A former member for six years of the conservative party, that of Chancellor Helmut Kohl who had promised the citizens of the GDR a flourishing future, Ulrich Siegmund joined the AfD in 2014, a year after its creation.

If he comes to power, he intends to implement measures that would mark a historic break with the political and cultural heritage of post-war Germany.

Ban rainbow flags

“From the first minute” of taking office, he wants to expel illegal immigrants from Saxony-Anhalt.

He also wishes to denounce the contract governing the German public audiovisual media which he accuses of being biased, preferring social networks and their algorithms.

Champion of the traditional family, he promises to "ban the official display of the rainbow flag (symbol of LGBT+ people) in schools and instead ensure that the national flag flies every school day in public establishments".

As education is the responsibility of the regional states in Germany, he also intends to remove the obligation to attend school, which would in particular open the way to home education.

He also plans to modify the history programs in schools, which for his taste are too focused on the guilt of Germany in the Third Reich. According to der Spiegel, some of his collaborators were also very close to the radical far-right and neo-Nazi movement.

He is also one of the AfD members who participated in a meeting in November 2023 in Potsdam during which a plan for mass expulsion of foreigners and Germans of foreign origin was discussed.

Married and father of a little girl, he remains discreet about his family life. Before their wedding, his wife had her hour of glory on the screen: she participated, according to the daily Bild, in a reality TV show entitled "between tulle and tears", dedicated to future brides looking for their ideal wedding dress.

© 2026 AFP

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