“The blue wave” – ​​that’s how Alternative for Germany supporters call their party’s advance. Blue is the color of the Far Right. And if you color all the constituencies, in which the AfD was elected the strongest political force in the recent European and local elections, blue, then almost the entire eastern part of Germany is blue. Like the historic town of Chemnitz.

“You just notice that people are waking up,” explains Niko Keller happily. He is the chairman of the AfD in Chemnitz. The 48-year-old businessman represents the AfD in the city council. He is friendly, casually dressed and takes the time to talk to us. His party has become the strongest political force in Chemnitz, winning 24% of the vote in the local elections and 28% in the European elections. What are the goals of his party after the successes?

“The level of well-being in the city needs to increase,” he says. “Order and security, that’s what we have to do.” He wants more police in his town. “People don’t like going downtown, especially in the evening hours. Many things happen, be it thefts or robberies or attacks on women. This has been happening since 2015.” It could say “it’s the foreigners’ fault” but it just mentions “2015”.

AfD: Against refugees and immigrants

For the AfD and the Far Right, “2015” is synonymous with almost everything they believe is going wrong in Germany. In 2015, around two million people fled to Europe from Syria and Iraq. Most came to Germany. Despite the AfD’s resistance.

The wars of recent years have changed Chemnitz. In the city of 250,000, the percentage of foreigners has skyrocketed to nearly 35,000. And they have become part of the urban landscape. There are tea rooms in town, hookahs, Arabic grocery stores. According to crime statistics in 2023, Chemnitz was one of the safest cities in Germany. And Germany is one of the safest countries in the world. But the AfD massively fuels anti-immigrant prejudices and fears.

The two faces of Chemnitz

Zeran Osman has a completely different image of her city. And also about the crime in Chemnitz. “The city center of Chemnitz is incredibly small. Of course, there is a lot going on in a very small area, but if you take a closer look at what the city center is like, then it gets very boring after 6pm too. and then the sidewalks are completely empty and the sidewalks are deserted.” Zeran Osman has been living in Chemnitz for eight years. He studied here, and now works in development training for the ASA-FF association, a network for democracy and against racism.

She likes the fact that there are now more foreigners living in the city than there were ten years ago. “There were completely empty streets in the middle of the center – now they’ve come back to life and that wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the migrants.” AfD’s victory on June 9 hurt these people. “It was expected, and yet it hurts. It’s even worse than we feared.”

The Chemnitz of the neo-Nazis

The rise of the AfD has concrete consequences for the lives of immigrants in Chemnitz: verbal and physical attacks in the city are on the rise. This is proven by statistics from counseling centers for victims. In addition, Chemnitz has been a hideout for German neo-Nazis for many years. The right-wing extremist gang NSU was able to hide here in the late 1990s because it was able to rely on a large network of supporters in the city.

In August and September 2018 there were multiple Nazi marches and riots in Chemnitz, sparked by the killing of a man at a city festival a few days earlier. According to reports, the suspected perpetrators had an immigrant background. As a result, a right-wing mob was literally hunting real or perceived immigrants, counter-protesters, police and members of the press. Right-wing extremists also attacked a Jewish restaurant in the city.

Threats and insults

“There are some corners in Chemnitz I don’t dare go,” says Avery. He is 19 years old and sits in front of the Karl Marx monument in the heart of the city. He says he receives verbal attacks and heavy swearing because his sneakers are printed with a rainbow, the symbol of the LGBTQ movement.

The AfD is defending itself against accusations that it is fueling unrest and hatred. And against accusations that it is an extremist and racist party. He calls himself “normal”. In Chemnitz “normal” means that Lars Franke, a man walking around in a T-shirt emblazoned with Hitler’s smile, is a member of the AfD city council. A man who participated in neo-Nazi marches, who comes from the environment of the right-wing extremist terrorist organization NSU. He is also a party friend of the local AfD chairman Niko Keller.

We meet another young man at the Karl Marx monument. His name is Leon, he is friendly, wears a hoodie and rides a BMX bike. Yes, vote for the AfD, he says. Because of the foreigners. What does it say about the fact that the AfD’s opponents say it is a Nazi party? It doesn’t bother him. Maybe that’s partly true, he says. But Hitler, continued Leon, who was a controversial figure, also did some good things. But, as he says, he doesn’t really know the whole story.

Edited by: Efthimis Angeloudis