Germany’s Green Party is campaigning with record sums of money in the eastern German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to keep the Alternative for Germany (AfD) out of power.
Remarkably, the Greens are campaigning with an intensity usually reserved for a national election, despite the party’s own election chances appearing rather dismal. In fact, in both states, the Greens are under threat of not even making it into parliament.
Saxony-Anhalt is by far the most important election, as there is a realistic chance that the AfD alone will obtain an absolute majority, thereby capturing the first real position of power in its history. In such a scenario, the parties of the German mainstream will be forced to cooperate with it.
Voters will choose their state legislatures, known as the Landtags, in close succession on Sept. 6 and Sept. 20, with the Greens campaigning on the slogan: “5% for the Greens in the Landtag – 0% AfD government.”
Sonntagsfrage zur Landtagswahl in Sachsen-Anhalt • INSA/BILD: AfD 42 % | CDU 22 % | DIE LINKE 13 % | SPD 6 % | BSW 5 % | FDP 4 % | GRÜNE 4 % | Sonstige 4 %
➤ Verlauf: https://t.co/lMOn56cNLK
🗓️ Landtagswahl: 6. September 2026 #ltwlsa #ltwst pic.twitter.com/SHYaagXPWm
— Wahlrecht.de (@Wahlrecht_de) August 10, 2026The math of the campaign is simple. If the Greens achieve 5 percent of the vote, it drastically reduces the chances of the AfD obtaining an absolute majority. Parties that score 5 percent are able to enter parliament, and the more parties that enter, the higher the AfD must score to obtain an absolute majority. Currently, the AfD has approximately 42 percent of the vote.
Right now, the Greens are under threat of being kicked out of parliament, as polling shows them consistently below the 5 percent threshold. In the last East German elections in 2024, in Thuringia and Brandenburg, the Greens were kicked out of the local Landtags; in Saxony, they just barely squeaked in. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the 5 percent entry threshold was not even exceeded in the previous elections.
How much money is at stake?
In Saxony-Anhalt, the state campaign budget of the Greens now equals €1.5 million, which is the highest budget in the history of the provincial party organization, more than double the previous record, according to German newspaper Welt. Only 40 percent of this sum comes from donations.
In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the budget is a more modest €800,000 — more than double what was originally planned for in December 2025. In addition to subsidies, the surplus was provided by subsidies from other provincial party organizations.
By comparison, the far larger leading ruling party, the Christian Democrats (CDU), is campaigning in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with about a million euros.
In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), which is preparing to defend its title under the leadership of Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig, will campaign with €1.1 million, which is the same as the 2021 budget, but more donations will flow there than before.
As a result, the ruling SPD in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern will be campaigning with less money than the Greens fighting for parliamentary entry in Saxony-Anhalt.
The budget of the Left Party has also jumped significantly. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the party is also running for election with a record amount of €600,000, and in Saxony-Anhalt they are also running with a record high of €562,000. In both states, the party reports increased willingness among individuals to vote.
