Dear friends and interested readers,
welcome to the 20th newsletter on and against global and local authoritarianism, published in September 2026. In Saxony-Anhalt, the first state government led by the AfD—which has successfully mobilized support by stoking fears of migration—is on the horizon, while the EU continues to push for border closures and deportation plans.
In our ReGA newsletter, you’ll find the following reports:
→ As always, we take a look at the AfD’s foreign policy—this time focusing on how the election in Saxony-Anhalt relates to the global far right and on the AfD’s complicated relationship with the MAGA movement
→ In our “Far-Right Europe” section, we report on how the European far right intends to use the influx of refugees into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta to further tighten border controls and, above all, is attacking Spain’s asylum policy
→ Under “International Reports,” you’ll find an overview of the far-right party and organizational landscape in Belgium. We also look at an action planned for late September by the South African organization Lex Libertas in the U.S.
→ In our “Linea B” project, you can read reports from Latin America about how new connections involving the recently arrested right-wing campaign strategist Fernando Cerimedo are continually coming to light. There are also articles about the two new right-wing governments in Peru and Colombia and their relationships with the U.S., as well as many other current topics from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Honduras.
→ Finally, we’ve included information on upcoming and past events—both by and against the far right!
If you’d like to subscribe to this newsletter, please click here.
In Saxony-Anhalt, it is currently unclear how things will proceed in the state parliament. Following the AfD’s shocking election victory with nearly 44 percent of the vote, the far-right party is dependent on votes from other parties to form its first government. These votes could come from Sahra Wagenknecht’s Alliance (BSW) or from CDU dissidents. This is a terrifying outcome for democracy itself, as the AfD has set out to abolish it. It is also a terrifying outcome for all the residents of Saxony-Anhalt who, from now on, must genuinely fear for their safety and ability to participate in society: migrants, people of color, Jews, queer people, people with disabilities, leftists, the sick, single parents, women, and the unemployed. We explain what the election in Saxony-Anhalt has to do with the AfD’s international relations in our section on AfD foreign policy.
Fear of migration and the smear campaign against migrants were among the AfD’s key campaign issues. Meanwhile, the far right in Europe is diligently continuing to seal off borders and preparing further tightening of border controls. At the end of July, just five weeks before the election in Saxony-Anhalt, more than 70,000 people crossed the border from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. The blog migration-control writes: “In Ceuta, they were met with rejection and boarded-up shops. They suffered from thirst and hunger. The vast majority returned to Morocco shortly thereafter, but more than 5,000 people remain in Ceuta and are demanding a solution. According to the latest official statement from Madrid, 83 bodies were recovered from the sea. Non-governmental organizations estimate the death toll to be well over a hundred.” We have compiled reactions to this from the European far right in our section “Europe’s Far Right.”
An article by our colleague Andrea Dip on the Berlin Campaign Conference published in taz and in a longer english version on our website sheds light on the identity crisis facing the Christian Democratic right. Peter Altmaier, a prominent CDU representative who was politically close to Angela Merkel and not known for having ties to the far right, took part in the conference. His mere presence—as well as his speech at the conference—brings the tense relationship with the far right into the spotlight.
From September 17 to 19, we are expecting another conference in the German capital—one that would be unthinkable without international participation and that will once again promote positions aligned with MAGA and Trump. The “European Pregnancy Help Leaders Summit” is being organized by the U.S.-based organization Heartbeat International—with German participation. The feminist “What the Fuck” alliance writes: “Heartbeat International is a U.S.-based, globally active anti-abortion organization from the Christian fundamentalist spectrum that is closely aligned with the MAGA movement and operates the world’s largest network of so-called Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs). These are centers that purportedly counsel people who are unsure whether or not they want to carry a pregnancy to term.” What sounds like a humane counseling service is, in reality, often an attempt to prevent access to a legal abortion at all costs. This is done by providing false or misleading information about the alleged consequences of an abortion. As early as 2020, extensive research revealed the fatal consequences of this disinformation.
“The fact that the German anti-abortion movement is hosting an international conference organized by Heartbeat International now openly reveals this movement’s close ties to the fascist and anti-feminist MAGA milieu in the U.S. The conference provides a platform for a deeply dangerous ideology and openly opposes the principle of bodily autonomy,” states the What the Fuck alliance. There will be protests against the conference and the so-called March for Life on September 19 in Berlin and Cologne; more information is available on the alliance’s website.
At another event in Berlin on September 24, Peter Thiel, the tech magnate and founder of the data analytics software company Palantir, will receive the Axel Springer Award—an honor previously bestowed upon other tech billionaires such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, and Jeff Bezos. Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner explains that Peter Thiel is one of the rare entrepreneurs “who not only found or finance companies, but also help shape the direction of technological development.” In Argentina, where Thiel lived for several months this year, many people are not at all enthusiastic about his plans to enter the energy and mining sectors and to gain access to all kinds of personal data for collection by Palantir.
Amid the AfD’s successes, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s attempts to generate momentum through a cabinet reshuffle have been completely forgotten. One of the new appointments following the 2026 summer recess was Steffen Bilger (CDU), who was named Minister of Transportation at the end of July. Much has been reported about Bilger’s career in the CDU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, as well as his previous activities in the transportation ministry, which suggest close ties to the automotive lobby. Most recently, Christina Deckwirth wrote about this on lobbycontrol. Strangely, however, little attention has been paid to Bilger’s connections to the Christian fundamentalist spectrum and its positions, as well as to the right-wing conservative edges of the Union.
In 2009, when he was elected to the Bundestag, Bilger was one of the youngest members of parliament. For many years, his political career was viewed favorably by the evangelical community. Among his core political convictions—as reported by the evangelical publication idea Spektrum—are “issues related to the protection of life” and the rejection of the “gender agenda,” values shaped by his upbringing in a Pietist household in Ludwigsburg. Bilger is also among the members of parliament who regularly participate in parliamentary prayer breakfasts, an initiative designed to promote Christian engagement in parliaments and developed by Protestant fundamentalists in the United States. In 2011, Bilger was a member of a German Bundestag delegation at a prayer breakfast in the U.S. capital, Washington (see idea Spektrum 9.2.2011, p. 18-19).
However, his work at the right-wing conservative Weikersheim Study Center (SZW) nearly proved to be his undoing in the 2000s. In 2004, Bilger had become the founding chairman of the center’s youth group, Jung-Weikersheim. But as early as 2007, he found himself caught up in the maelstrom of public controversy surrounding the Study Center. The trigger was a eulogy delivered by the then-Minister President of Baden-Württemberg, Günther Oettinger (CDU), for one of his predecessors, Hans Filbinger. In it, Oettinger had claimed that Filbinger—who, during the Nazi era, had been complicit in legal injustices as a naval judge—had been an “opponent of the Nazi regime,” a statement that sparked massive backlash. Bilger initially defended Oettinger’s speech and only distanced himself from it after Oettinger retracted his statement. Like his other CDU colleagues, Bilger left the scholarship foundation founded by Filbinger. At the time, Junge Freiheit described Bilger as “yet another leading Union member ‘on probation.’”