The leader of the left-wing German party “Sarah Wagenknecht Union“ (SWU) Sarah Wagenknecht directly linked the AfD's growing positions to the corruption and wrong decisions of the federal government in Berlin.
According to Wagenknecht, the current political mainstream in Germany is completely disconnected from the problems of working citizens, which is pushing voters towards radical alternatives.
The statement comes at a critical moment, as according to the latest polls, the AfD is leading convincingly with 42% support in Saxony-Anhalt, ahead of the traditional CDU/CSU bloc. In an interview with ZDF television, AfD co-chair Alice Weidel has already announced a course towards the country's exit from the eurozone and the Schengen area, motivating it with the weak economy and migration pressure. Meanwhile, in an attempt to stop the AfD from forming its first regional government, a number of German politicians are considering mechanisms to block and isolate the party, Politico reports.
Annalena Berbock becomes a professor in New York
Against the backdrop of these internal turmoil, former German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock is officially changing careers. The German news agency DPA, citing sources in the party circles of the “Union 90/The Greens“, reported that Berbock will take up a teaching position at the prestigious Columbia University in New York.
She will take on the role of professor of “Global Leadership“ and co-director of a specialized master's program in the United States. Her contract is for three years. Annalena Berbock is completing her one-year term as president of the UN General Assembly and will officially hand over the post on September 8, 2026 to her successor from Bangladesh. The “Greens“ politician did not hide her relief from her stay in the United States from her colleagues, telling the DPA agency that the opportunity to “dissolve in the diversity of New York“ brings her peace away from the heavy party struggles in her homeland.
Berbock follows the example of another popular German politician from the “Greens“ - former Vice Chancellor Joschka Fischer, who after the end of his political career also chose the academic path in the US and lectured at Princeton University.