Overview
- Verdi chief Frank Werneke calls the March–May 2026 works-council vote a litmus test and says candidates on union-backed lists must sign self-declarations to bar far-right entrants.
- The election will select about 180,000 works-council representatives nationwide, with Verdi highlighting risks in industrial sectors such as automotive suppliers.
- Werneke says AfD officeholders are only sparsely present inside unions though many members vote AfD, and he urges parties to keep a strict no-cooperation stance.
- Ex-constitutional judge Udo Di Fabio warns against labeling the AfD wholesale as a Nazi party, while author-lawyer Juli Zeh argues the firewall approach has failed.
- Polling places the AfD ahead in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt and 53% of respondents expect at least one AfD minister-president in 2026, as analyst Wolfgang Schroeder cautions that adopting AfD themes aids the party and notes an AfD-led state would complicate any ban bid.