> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # ‘Silence is not neutrality’: Organising against the far right in Saxony-Anhalt - URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/silence-is-not-neutrality-organising-against-the-far-right-in-saxony-anhalt/ - Published: 2026-09-17T10:52:19.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-17T10:54:15.000Z - Description: After the AfD’s win, activists say resisting the far right means defending the institutions where its politics take hold - Author: Nandini Naira Archer Before the election, researcher Christin Jänicke kept returning to a piece of advice from an East German activist who lived through the far-right violence of the 1990s: “Keep going, don’t let them wear you down.” Jänicke found herself returning to these words after the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party won this month’s election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote. Having fallen short of a majority, the party is still seeking support from other parties or politicians to form a government. Since the vote, there have been demonstrations, messages of solidarity and calls to keep fighting for rights. But, Jänicke said, there is also “powerlessness and fear” – not only of what may come next, but of what many people are already experiencing. For Saxony-Anhalt’s migrant-led organisations and those they support, some of those fears are stark. “Do I still have a future here? Will my children be safe? Will I continue to be treated as an equal member of this society?” These are among the questions being heard by Landesnetzwerk Migrantenorganisationen Sachsen-Anhalt (LAMSA), a statewide network of migrant organisations. Mina Jawad, who leads LAMSA’s work on democracy and participation, describes a mixture of “fear, anger, exhaustion and uncertainty”. But the network is wary of depicting migrant communities only as victims. “People are organising, supporting one another and insisting on their place in this state,” she said. migrants are not outside German society looking in. We live with the same concerns about housing, healthcare, schools, wages, pensions and public services as everyone else.” The problem, she argues, is that migrants are increasingly being blamed for problems they experience alongside everyone else. “Real social problems are left unresolved, while migrants, including second generation, are turned into scapegoats.” ## **When resistance becomes riskier** Jänicke, a researcher at the WZB Berlin Social Science Centre whose work examines civil society responses to the far right, says the AfD’s increasing power changes the conditions under which resistance takes place. “It becomes socially riskier for clubs, congregations and associations to draw a line against the far right,” she said. That pressure becomes greater when far-right politicians gain power. A person may simultaneously be a neighbour, a member of the local club and an far-right official with influence over funding or other decisions. The problem is particularly acute in eastern Germany, Jänicke argues, where activists face several pressures at once: confronting a strong far-right movement on the ground while also challenging stereotypes that dismiss the east as uniformly far right and allow the AfD to claim east German identity for itself. LAMSA describes similar pressures. In smaller communities, Jawad said, speaking publicly against racism can carry a personal cost because people know one another and political positions are highly visible. “But the answer cannot be retreat.” Instead, organising often means less visible work: keeping advice services open, documenting discrimination, building local relationships and making sure people know they are not alone. “Civil society is not an extension of government,” Jawad said. “We have an independent democratic role. If fundamental rights come under pressure, silence is not neutrality.” ## Beyond the demonstrations Germany has seen enormous demonstrations against the far right in recent years, even as the AfD has continued to make electoral gains. For Jänicke, that does not mean the protests have failed. “You can’t read off from the election result alone whether an action was successful,” she said. Mass demonstrations can break a sense of paralysis, bring people into political action for the first time and create new alliances. “You no longer feel alone.” But street protests are only one layer of resistance. “The actual normalisation mostly happens quietly, gradually, and often unnoticed,” Jänicke said – through decisions about a club membership, a donation or whether a far-right politician is invited to a community event. That makes places such as sports clubs, congregations, volunteer organisations and local associations important political terrain. “You can actually do something yourself,” she said. “You don’t have to wait for the next election.” LAMSA’s own organising points to a similar conclusion. During door-to-door canvassing, people spoke about poverty, loneliness, healthcare, pensions, deteriorating infrastructure and a sense that institutions no longer worked for them. “One of the most important lessons is that people need to be approached as citizens with real social concerns, not as ideological categories,” Jawad explained. The answer, LAMSA argues, is neither to dismiss those grievances nor to accept the far right’s explanation for them. “The lesson is not to copy far-right language in order to compete with the far right. The lesson is to address the conditions that make scapegoating politically effective.” Or, more concretely: “You cannot repair a broken road, secure a pension or staff a rural clinic by blaming migrants.” ## ‘Practical, not symbolic’ Both Jawad and Jänicke point to the importance of infrastructure: organisations, funding and networks capable of sustaining resistance long after a demonstration has ended. For small or rural groups, Jänicke said, even basic resources can make a difference. A volunteer-run organisation may not have legal advice or a permanent meeting place. Sometimes solidarity from elsewhere means financial help; sometimes it means people from a larger city bringing equipment, organising an event or simply showing up. “The costs of this engagement are not evenly distributed,” she said. Those already marginalised by “class, background or geography” often carry the greatest burden. LAMSA says migrant-led organisations need “solidarity that is practical, not symbolic”: reliable long-term funding, legal protections against discrimination, access to decision-making and the ability to continue their work independently of changes in government. That matters even more as the AfD moves closer to exercising institutional power in Saxony-Anhalt. For Jänicke, the challenge is therefore no longer simply stopping a marginal party from gaining ground. “It’s about protecting existing projects for diversity and against racism that already exist,” she said. And the state itself, she argues, is not a neutral actor: it can protect civil society through funding and legal support or weaken it through cuts and delegitimisation. LAMSA similarly warns against treating Saxony-Anhalt as an isolated problem. “What begins with the marginalisation of migrants does not end with migrants,” Jawad said. “When the equal worth of one group becomes negotiable, the democratic rights of everyone become less secure.”