Ahead of state elections in key eastern German states, the far-right AfD party is currently topping the polls in Thuringia and running a close second place in Saxony – with around 30 percent of the vote in each. Meanwhile the so-called left-wing conservative Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) party has 13 to 19 percent of the vote.
This means that the two parties could potentially garner enough votes to form a radical coalition in the Landtag (state parliament).
Political experts have expressed concern about how closely the two parties are aligned, particularly after the BSW's top candidate Katja Wolf said she could imagine collaborating with the AfD on individual initiatives if not as part of a coalition.
In an interview with Bavaria's Münchner Merkur, political consultant Johannes Hillje said that BSW was deliberately keeping all its options open.
"We cannot rule out that the BSW will ultimately tolerate [Björn] Höcke as minister president [in Thuringia] - nor can we be sure that the BSW will not secure office with AfD votes," he said.
In terms of domestic politics, he says the two parties are "hardly distinguishable from each other" in some areas, including on the issues of migration and the war on Ukraine.
Foreign policy is decided at a federal level, but state politicians are also weighing in on the matter amid widespread scepticism in the population, especially in eastern parts of the country.
Recent data from the Forsa polling institute showed that 40 percent of respondents in eastern Germany believed that the country was giving too much aid to Ukraine, although these results predate the plans to cut aid to Ukraine.
READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Why German leaders are bashing planned Ukraine aid cuts
The Local takes a look at how similar the parties' positions on are on key issues.
Migration
The BSW says it wants to stop "uncontrolled migration", deport criminal migrants and incentivise the quick departure of asylum seekers who are required to leave the country by only giving them the legal minimum in terms of subsistence.
This is very similar to the AfD's stance. The far-right party wants to end illegal immigration by "consistently enforcing" immigration law. The party says it also wants to disincentivise social migration by reducing accommodation standards and financial support for asylum seekers and ditching the health card. And they want to start what they call an "effective and comprehensive" deportation initiative for illegal immigrants.
It was only this January when German news outlet Correctiv exposed a meeting of far-right extremists that took place near Potsdam in November last year.
The investigation detailed AfD members and other individuals reportedly talking about a concept called 'remigration' - which would involve the mass deportation of immigrants and "non-assimilated citizens" from Germany - in the event of the party coming to power.
And Björn Höcke, one of the AfD's most controversial politicians and the head of the party in Thuringia, was recently on trial in Germany for knowingly using a banned Nazi slogan in public.
READ ALSO: German far-right politician back in court over Nazi slogan
Education
BSW wants to see a return to the core competencies of reading, writing and arithmetic while the AfD wants to improve pupils' spelling and see less ideology in schools. Both parties want more traditional teaching and reject the use of gender-neutral language and want to see it banned in schools (Genderverbot).
READ ALSO: From Fräulein to the gender star: Germany’s language revolution
Homeland security
Both parties want to increase the number of police officers and see their equipment updated. But both also have a problem with the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz) in Thuringia.
While the BSW wants to see it more closely monitored, the AfD wants the body dissolved, saying it is "a danger to democracy". An unsurprising stance given the fact that the Office classifies the party as a far-right extremist party.
The AfD is also against any further tightening of weapons regulations despite rising knife crime.
READ ALSO: 'We want to govern' - Could the far-right AfD join a coalition in Germany?
Russia/Ukraine
Both parties want to revive trade relations with Russia with the AfD wanting to "intensify" relations. The BSW is calling for a return to Russian oil imports while the AfD wants an end to sanctions against the country that invaded Ukraine.
They are also both against providing support to Ukraine and the stationing of US medium-range missiles in Germany.
Members of the AfD party have previously been suspected of having connections to Russia and China.
In April, German authorities arrested an aide to Maximilian Krah, a member of the European Parliament for the AfD and the party's top candidate for June's EU elections, on suspicion of spying for China.
The spying claims come on top of other recent allegations that Krah has links to Russia.
READ ALSO: How spying scandal has rocked troubled German far-right party
Covid-19
Both parties are heavily critical of the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and want the events to be clarified by a parliamentary committee of inquiry.
Economy and energy
Again, there are strong similarities here: both parties are against further climate protection measures. The AfD says lignite (brown coal) should still be used for energy generation, is against any further construction of wind farms and would like to see a return to nuclear power.
They're aligned on some health matters, too, with the BSW saying there should be accessible, outpatient specialist care and the AfD wanting communal health centres in rural areas and local outpatient facilities. The BSW also says that health, housing, energy and water supplies should not be used to make a profit.
The latest polls for Thuringia from August 13th give AfD 29.1 percent of the vote, the conservative CDU has 21.7 percent, while BSW is in third place with 19 percent.
In Saxony, meanwhile, the CDU have edged slighter higher than the AfD in the latest results – 31.3 percent and 31.1 percent of the vote, respectively. BSW takes up the third position here, too, with 13.1 percent.
The elections take place on September 1st in both states.
READ ALSO: Why a German orchestra is using music to protest against the far-right
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