Answering to the AfD? What Germany’s regional elections could mean for arts funding

Germany’s Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, a municipally funded contemporary art museum in an 11th-century building, faces uncertainty over regional arts funding as Saxony-Anhalt holds a pivotal state election on Sunday. Final polling ahead of the vote forecast the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) at more than 40%, up from just under 25% in the 2021 state election, while the governing Christian Democrats (CDU) are polling just over 20%, down by about a third from 2021. The article notes that an AfD role in government could be required to form a coalition in the Magdeburg Landtag, and that the party has increasingly targeted cultural institutions and movements—citing Bauhaus in Dessau and radical theatre—as part of a restrictive vision of German culture. The museum’s exhibition Das Geteilte Jetzt/The Shared Now is set to close the same weekend as the election, underscoring the political stakes for cultural programming.

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