Saxony-Anhalt’s head of government Pure Haseloff (CDU) is grateful for the development of the East past 35 years. “If you look at it fairly, we have had great historical luck – also in view of the fact that we got away from the Russians,” Haseloff told the dpa news agency. “If you look today at Ukraine or other former Soviet states and see the dependencies they have, while we were able to join the Western world and can travel anywhere today, you can only be grateful,” he added.
According to the Prime Minister, the East has since then developed further in many areas, for example in the municipalities and Environmental protection. During the GDR era, the environmental conditions were sometimes catastrophic, and people wondered how many centuries it would take to repair the damage. “We achieved that in just one generation. Today you could apply for a climatic health resort in Bitterfeld. That was once the hell of Europe – today there is a white beach on the Goitzsche,” said Haseloff.
AfD is ahead in surveys in Saxony-Anhalt
The CDU politician has been head of government in Saxony-Anhalt since 2011 and is currently the longest-serving Prime Minister in Germany. The next one State elections in Saxony-Anhalt will take place on September 6, 2026 instead of. After 15 years, Haseloff will not run again. Instead, State Economics Minister Sven Schulze is the top candidate CDU. In surveys, the AfD and its top candidate Ulrich Siegmund are currently clearly ahead with around 40 percent. The CDU is currently below percent. Haseloff governs the state in a so-called German coalition together with the SPD and FDP.
Haseloff speaks of the election as a system question
Haseloff believes it is crucial that this “coalition of the middle” works throughout the entire legislative period and beyond. “I wish that it has the power and the majority to determine politics. My biography and everything I do is completely subordinated to that.” At the The system question will also be asked in the election, said the Prime Minister: Either you remain part of the large Federal Republic with 16 federal states, which is governed democratically from the center, or there is a different system.
In this context, the CDU politician expressed concern that some people are critical of the solutions to problems in democracies. According to him, the democratic system is demanding – for example when it comes to opinion formation, minority rights, citizens’ initiatives or legal action – but there is no sensible alternative to it. Anyone who has experienced the GDR and its failure must know that authoritarian systems are not a solution. “We live in a prosperity that the GDR could never have produced.”
