Germany in August 2026: the most important developments in politics
In August 2026 German politics was dominated by the run-up to state elections, above all in Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD led every poll. Surveys in the last week of the month put it at between 40 and 42 percent, with the CDU at 22 percent in one of them. Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews, called AfD politicians declared opponents of an open society, and Chancellor Friedrich Merz campaigned in the state. Alice Weidel announced that an AfD government would take Germany out of the eurozone and the Schengen area, and unions and employers warned against the idea. A study said an AfD government in Saxony-Anhalt would slow the state's economy.
The question of how to deal with the party split the other parties. More than 1,000 lawyers backed calls for ban proceedings, and Charlotte Knobloch of the Jewish community urged that a ban be examined, while the SPD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania rejected one. The CDU leadership repeated that it would not cooperate with the AfD. In Saxony-Anhalt the BSW signalled openness to supporting an AfD candidate for state premier. In Thuringia, Björn Höcke proposed Sahra Wagenknecht as minister-president on August 13, the AfD filed a no-confidence motion against Premier Mario Voigt, and Wagenknecht called the firewall coalition in the state a failure. Several courts excluded AfD candidates from local elections.
The governing coalition weakened. Support for it fell to a five-year low, a poll rated Merz the most unpopular chancellor on record, and CDU and SPD argued over ending the pension at 63 and over climate policy. The SPD faced a leadership dispute and budget problems, and Manuela Schwesig ruled out a candidacy. The Federal Constitutional Court told the Bundestag to review the five-percent threshold for elections. In Berlin, the Left Party led polls before the city election.
In foreign policy Germany prepared measures against Russia after a drone incident at Leipzig airport, while a Russian envoy accused Berlin of seeking a scapegoat for the Nord Stream attack. Merz condemned remarks by Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir calling for daily killings in Gaza as inhumane.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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