Overview
- The works-council elections run from March 1 to May 31, 2026, with roughly 180,000 seats to be filled.
- Verdi says AfD officeholders inside unions remain few, though a notable share of union members vote for the AfD.
- Industrial supply chains, especially automotive suppliers, are identified as hotspots for right-leaning candidate lists.
- Verdi is vetting slates with heightened checks and using signed self-declarations to keep extremist-linked candidates off its lists.
- Werneke urges parties to uphold a firewall against AfD cooperation and criticizes budget cuts affecting municipalities under Chancellor Friedrich Merz as harmful to public services.