Why is far-right AfD dominating in northeast Germany?

In the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the far-right Alternative for Germany party surged in popularity during the recent snap elections. Euronews examines why.

Germany’s snap elections, which took place just two weeks ago, saw the far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), win its best-ever result.

In the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the AfD was the strongest party. In Pasewalk, it won 40.4% of the votes.

The quaint city, dotted with a mix of traditional houses and prefabricated flats constructed between World War II and German reunification, is some 90 minutes by train from downtown Berlin.

It’s quiet and immaculately clean, with a lot of care put into community activities. The residents all know each other and are jovial and friendly.

Yet the mayor of Pasewalk, Danny Rodewald, tells Euronews that people in the region feel unheard at a federal level.

“As small municipalities in our region, we are underfunded. We need better financial support,” he said.

Rodewald said recreational facilities are lacking in the city, which is home to around 10,000 residents, many of whom are over 60. While schools, healthcare facilities and hospitals are well developed, he says more investment, including into new housing, is needed.

“As a small regional centre, we need support in housing construction — not just social housing, but also regular, commercial housing development. Because I would like to attract city dwellers to move here to the countryside,” he explained.

Rodewald is keen to stress that the city offers a decent quality of life and that while the AfD won twice the amount of votes at 35% than the second strongest party, the CDU at 17.7%, it doesn’t mean that residents are unhappy with their lives.

Federal vs local governments

The snap election at the end of February was for the federal government, which is separate from the state level.

Residents in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern told Euronews that they wanted to see an end to the war because they didn’t understand why taxpaying money was being spent on weapons for Ukraine when homeless Germans were lacking support and food prices had exploded. These decisions are made at a federal level and not the state one.

“I think there are quite a few citizens who are dissatisfied, but not necessarily with local politics. This was a federal election, and you can’t directly apply those results to Pasewalk,” chairperson of the local Social Democratic (SPD) association and lawyer, Michael Ammon, told Euronews.

“And yes, there are certainly things that haven’t gone as they should have, and that’s why citizens have unfortunately turned away from the major parties,” he added.

Ammon says that the new government, when it is formed, need to do all it can to revive the economy.

“That’s difficult enough because there are some factors we simply cannot control. The war in Ukraine, for example, we cannot influence that directly. Prices must come down, bureaucracy must be reduced, and hopefully, that will be achieved,” he explained.

Ammon says that if the centre-left SPD and centre-right CDU, who are in the process of discussing forming a coalition, manage to put policies in place to solve Germany’s economic crisis, “the AfD, with the rest of their policies, won’t really appeal to the voters who supported them this time.”

Cities vs rural areas

A record 75% of Groß Luckow voted for AfD, the most in all of Germany. The village of 200 residents lies far away from amenities such as shops and is a 15-minute drive from Pasewalk. Many of the villages in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are isolated.

One resident, Detlef, a farmer who plans to retire later this year, is pleased with the rise of the AfD.

“The AfD is doing well. But whether anything will come of it, something has to happen. For years, we’ve only been deceived and cheated here. Promises, always more promises,” Detlef told Euronews as he tended to his garden.

“But nothing is actually promised. Prices for all kinds of food have become so expensive.”

“The AfD here, they want things to be better. They want foreigners out — people who don’t belong here. What are they doing here? They just take our money. They don’t want to work. They get apartments, everything is handed to them, while in the big cities, we have homeless people,” he added.

Detlef is critical of the governments, especially the previous CDU and SPD governments, and hopes that if AfD comes into power, things will change.

The AfD has already taken down the election posters in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, whilst other parties such as the Greens, CDU, and liberal Free Democrats (FDP) have not.

Enrico Komning, is an AfD directly-elected member of parliament for Groß Luckow, has told Euronews in a written statement that a shortage of skilled workers, high taxes and energy costs, poor infrastructure and bureaucracy is crippling the region.

“Structurally weak regions like eastern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania rely primarily on small and medium-sized businesses, often with only a handful of employees,” Komning said, adding that the area is economically reliant on tourism along the coast in its district of lakes, agriculture and skilled trades.

He also blamed poor infrastructure for the lack of economic development, pointing to incomplete motorway construction linking cities and larger cities in the area that are still not connected by high-speed trains.

“It is unacceptable that in 2025 we still have to talk about dead spots in large parts of rural areas,” Komning pointed out.

“In September 2026, there will be state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. There is a great opportunity for a change of policy,” he said.

For now, the pressure will be on for the new German government to revive the economy, especially if they want to bring voters back to the established parties.