Germany’s churches reckon with AfD’s rise

Church leaders in Germany are bracing for the future after a far-right party — Alternative for Germany (AfD) — swept the election of an eastern state in the country on Sunday.

This was despite months of loud efforts by Protestant and Catholic churches warning their members about the risks of far-right extremism, with slogans such as “Vote Consciously” and “Diversity is Divine!”

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During the regional election campaign in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD often took aim at migrants, blaming them for crime. The party wants to force asylum-seekers to work and rapidly deport people who have failed to get asylum. It also wants to decrease the emphasis on Germany’s Nazi past in school curricula and separate children with disabilities from those without.

The AfD received nearly 44 percent of the vote. If it can form a coalition with another party to have enough seats to form a government, it will be the first far-right party to lead a German state since the Nazi era. If the AfD is able to take power, many Germans fear this will normalize the party so more people feel comfortable voting for it across the country. Elections are coming later this month to the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and to the city-state of Berlin, where the AfD is polling at 38 percent and 18 percent respectively.

Protestant Regional Bishop Johann Schneider, who lives in the city of Halle in Saxony-Anhalt, said his church held a campaign to encourage people to vote. In Sunday’s election, 32 percent of Catholic voters and 33 percent of Protestant voters supported the AfD.

“Now, we have to say, ‘Oh, that’s not so good,” he said.

It is still uncertain who will lead Saxony-Anhalt, but the AfD, which received nearly 44 percent of the vote, has a chance if the far-left Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) party agrees to a coalition, or if individual members cross over to the party.

Although the share of church members who voted for the AfD was well below the party’s nearly 44 percent overall vote share, religious leaders remain concerned.

Schneider told Broadview the results can be attributed partly to demographics, with most of his congregation over 60 years old and Halle having a very low average income.

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About 10 percent of the population in Saxony-Anhalt is Protestant and three percent is Catholic.

He added that the AfD also offered voters a sense of belonging. “They had success in creating a feeling of ‘we are together,’” he said, adding this was especially resonant in rural areas.

Christoph Maier, director and head of studies of theology and politics at the Protestant Academy of Saxony-Anhalt said the AfD has been able to create a common identity, adding that the AfD has become very similar to “a religious movement without any sense of God.”

During the election campaign, he said he heard questions about whether the church had become too political. “I answered that with the opposite challenge: is it possible that the AfD has become too religious?” he said.

Maier believes the AfD builds identity by devaluing minority groups and different ways of thinking while pushing a worldview that goes against Christian values.

For Catholic Deacon Christoph Tekaath, also in Saxony-Anhalt, it was not political platforms but Christian values, such as charity, solidarity and dialogue, that illustrated how important it was to take a public stand.

“For me, the key point is this: the church should not be party political. But it must be political when human dignity and the foundations of our common life are at stake,” he said. “When people are devalued or excluded because of their origin, religion or way of life, the church cannot simply remain neutral.”

This was not the first time the German Catholic church spoke out. In 2024, a bishops’ conference issued a unanimous declaration that ethnic nationalism is incompatible with Christianity.

Magdeburg Bishop Gerhard Feige has spoken out about right-wing extremism for years, including attending a demonstration against it in 2024.

But Tekaath said the intensity of the church’s involvement may have been stronger during this election, with several Christian institutions combining their efforts under the slogan “Vote Consciously.”

Tekaath argued the more difficult work begins after the election, by engaging with people instead of building walls against them — while not giving up the church’s convictions and standing clearly against inhumane ideologies.

But churches themselves are at risk. The AfD has previously said it would cut state funding for both Protestant and Catholic churches.

Schneider says he is concerned, but added it would be legally difficult for the AfD to achieve this. If it did, the church’s social services could be cut, such as the programs his church provides, like counselling for women in abusive relationships.

“Germany is a very legalistic country and if you don’t know your rights, you are lost,” he said. “Who is interested in women in need? No one… Only the church.”

He believes the church is being used as a scapegoat — and low membership made it more prone to risk.

“Churches are a good example to be blamed, because we are so ‘irrelevant’ in society,” he said, adding that it’s become a local colloquialism to ask: “Are you normal or are you Christian?”

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Kristina Jovanovski is a Canadian journalist based in Berlin.