Overview
- Unionsfraktionschef Thorsten Frei told Funke papers that the CDU leadership in Berlin will not allow its Sachsen‑Anhalt branch to form or tolerate a coalition with the AfD, treating the ban as a binding party principle.
- Polls show the AfD with roughly 41 percent in Sachsen‑Anhalt, putting it far ahead of the CDU and creating scenarios where the AfD could gain decisive power depending on which smaller parties pass the 5 percent threshold.
- The Landesverfassungsschutz in Sachsen‑Anhalt has classified the AfD there as a 'gesichert rechtsextremistische Bestrebung', a formal finding that increases security scrutiny and factors heavily into coalition calculations.
- In Berlin the Linke is insisting on a Vergesellschaftungsgesetz to expropriate large rental portfolios, and the federal coalition agreed in July to draft a law to block state‑level expropriations but has shown only limited visible follow‑through.
- Internal party strains are rising: an SPD-Unterbezirk has sent a Brandbrief demanding a members' vote on leadership, the BSW is campaigning to unseat the CDU locally, and WahlSwiper analysis highlights surprising policy overlaps between AfD and Die Linke that complicate traditional coalition math.