AfD: Study confirms billion-euro gap in AfD Saxony-Anhalt's program

The Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle (IWH) has conducted a study to examine the financial feasibility of the political plans of the AfD Saxony-Anhalt. The IWH has come to a clear conclusion: the AfD's election program for Saxony-Anhalt is not financed according to its own calculations. "The election program is a castle in the air, it cannot be financed," said Reint Gropp, President of the IWH, in an interview with the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ)".

Just over five weeks before the state election, the AfD is still at 41 percent in a new survey by Infratest Dimap. The party promises its voters to introduce extensive new benefits, cut taxes, and forego new debt at the same time. "These are election gifts for a certain clientele that the AfD believes has earned these election gifts," says Gropp.

The IWH study only takes into account measures that can be reliably quantified based on official sources, such as the party program, and the party's own statements. The costs of around 1.6 billion euros and 877 million euros to avoid new debt are offset by only 243 million euros in savings.

If the announced debt waiver is included, less than ten cents cover every euro needed. This leaves an annual gap of at least 2.2 billion euros - about a quarter of the state's tax revenue, or around 1,000 euros per inhabitant per year.

The AfD Saxony-Anhalt has repeatedly been criticized in the past for its election program. Its priorities include a tough migration policy, the reduction of democracy funding, and radical education reforms. Constitutional lawyers consider parts of the program to be even unconstitutional.

The entire study can be found here.