Ulrich Siegmund, the smiling face of the triumphant German far right

He says he will "make history": Ulrich Siegmund, 35, is predicted to be the clear winner of the Saxony-Anhalt state elections on Sunday evening, and could allow the German far right to seize its first region since 1945.

In this state of former East Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), an anti-immigrant, Russophile and pro-Trump party, is estimated to have won 44.5% of the vote according to the first estimate by the public broadcaster ARD, 26 points ahead of the conservatives.

While it is still too early to know if the AfD will come to power, its figurehead has in any case inflicted a crushing defeat on the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had promised to curb the rise of the AfD when he took office in May 2025.

By playing on nostalgia for the GDR and investing heavily in social media, Ulrich Siegmund, a jovial and dynamic man in his thirties, aroused interest among young people and retirees alike in this aging and poor state of 2.1 million inhabitants during his campaign.

During his campaign, he promised stricter immigration policies, advocated closer ties with Russia, and campaigned for a break with the post-war German political and cultural legacy, based on contrition for Nazism.

- "The most dangerous man in Germany" -

On Sunday morning, this slender man, with blue eyes and a salt-and-pepper lock of hair slicked to the side, arrived triumphantly in his native stronghold of Tangermünde, a picturesque town of 10,000 souls, to go and vote.

"Why are we going to make history one way or another? Because, one way or another, we will achieve a good result, which will of course lead to a reshaping of the political landscape in Germany," he told a crowd of about 100 supporters.

In recent months, this tribune with more than 500,000 Instagram followers has been crisscrossing his native region, taking selfies and signing autographs on mugs and t-shirts bearing his image.

Moped rides, jogging, village festivals with sausages and bouncy castles for children... The man is welcomed like a kind of rockstar.

Propelled to the front page of the prestigious weekly magazine der Spiegel under the title "Germany's most dangerous man", Ulrich Siegmund reacted on Instagram by signing the magazine.

- "A good friend" -

"He's like a good friend," a 19-year-old participant in one of the events he organized recently told AFP.

After an apprenticeship in sales and studies in economic psychology and business management, he founded a company in Berlin specializing in the diffusion of ambient fragrances, before returning to his homeland, Saxony-Anhalt.

Born three weeks after the reunification of Germany in 1990, he witnessed the growing idealization of the GDR among his fellow citizens in the East, who sometimes wave the old flag of communist Germany at his meetings.

He knows how to use this "Ostalgie," capitalizing on the sense of injustice felt by his voters who consider themselves disadvantaged compared to their compatriots in the west and to immigrants.

On Sunday, he arrived at the polling station with his wife Julia on a sky-blue Simson of the AfD, a moped erected as a symbol of East German identity with which he had crisscrossed his region.

A former member of the Conservative Party for six years, Ulrich Siegmund joined the AfD in 2014, one year after its creation.

- Rainbow flags -

"From the very first minute" of taking office, the tribune stated his intention to expel undocumented immigrants from Saxony-Anhalt.

This social media enthusiast also wants to remove the region from the realm of public broadcasting, which he accuses of being biased.

A champion of the traditional family, he promises to ban the rainbow flag in schools and to raise the national flag high in public institutions.

Since education falls under the jurisdiction of regional states, history curricula are also in his sights, as he believes they focus too heavily on the guilt of Third Reich Germany. According to Der Spiegel, some of his colleagues have had close ties to the neo-Nazi movement.

He is also among the AfD members who participated in a meeting in November 2023 in Potsdam during which a plan for the mass expulsion of foreigners and Germans of foreign origin was discussed.

According to the weekly magazine Spiegel, Ulrich Siegmund has his sights set on more than just Saxony-Anhalt.

When asked about his ambitions, his response on social media was nonchalant: "Who knows what the future holds?"