Minority groups in Germany warn of possible far-right success in state elections

Minority groups are warning that the AfD’s policies wouldn’t just impact local or national politics.

Transcript

00:00Majid Albani came to Berlin in 2013 after fleeing the war in Syria.

00:08Now a German citizen, he says he's looking forward to voting to help fight the rise of

00:14the far-right alternative for Deutschland.

00:17He says he hopes more people speak up.

00:20Those who don't like, or at least I know they don't like these ideas, they are silent about

00:26it.

00:27And that's disappointing because, like, we need to be active, you know.

00:32As pro-democracy actors, we need to really show that we are the majority, and I believe

00:39we are the majority.

00:40The AFD came in second in Germany in this year's EU election.

00:45Now minority groups are raising the alarm ahead of elections in the eastern states of

00:50Saxony and Thuringia on Sunday, in which the party could get the highest vote share.

00:57In Thuringia, it's polling at about 30 percent.

01:00The American Jewish Committee's Berlin office put out a pamphlet warning that the AFD is

01:06pushing an anti-Semitic ideology.

01:09The organization's director says that despite promises from the other political parties

01:14that they won't enter into a coalition with the AFD, there are still risks.

01:19What maybe we'll see after the state election is that it will be very hard for the other

01:23parties to form a coalition without the AFD.

01:26So that could mean that in these states you will have, you know, a locked political system

01:32that cannot move forward or do anything because there's no functioning government.

01:37Minority groups are warning that the AFD's policies wouldn't just impact local or national

01:41politics.

01:42The party has suggested holding a referendum on whether Germany should leave the EU.

01:48A leader with Germany's Turkish community says the party threatens the entire European

01:53system.

01:54The AFD is an anti-Semitic party, an anti-Muslim party, and at the same time an anti-democratic

02:02party.

02:03And the AFD is the party that denies fascism, denies the Holocaust.

02:13The debate over migration and refugees has been reignited after a Syrian was accused

02:19of killing three people at a festival in Western Germany on Friday.

02:24The AFD quickly highlighted the attack in its campaign, but Majid says he has not lost

02:29faith in his fellow Germans.

02:32I still believe that the German society is well-educated and they are well aware and

02:37they can differentiate between like one person, extremist, radical person, and a group of

02:44people.

02:45Another state election will be held in Brandenburg on September 22nd, in which polls suggest

02:50the AFD has again a strong chance of coming in first.