What the far-Right’s rise in Germany could hold for India
Germany’s Political Shift Raises Questions for India’s Growing Community
Bharatmorningnews.com – Germany’s changing political landscape is becoming increasingly relevant for India at a time when the two countries are seeking closer strategic, technological and defence ties. The recent visit to India by German chief of defence Carsten Breuer highlighted efforts to broaden military cooperation and deepen engagement in key industries.
Those initiatives have developed amid wider uncertainty linked to Donald Trump’s return to the global political conversation and have been encouraged in Berlin by a centre-right government. Yet the growing strength of Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD, has added a new source of concern for India, particularly for Indian students, professionals and families living in Germany.
Election results with wider consequences
State elections held in September in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin attracted attention far beyond Germany. For the first time since the collapse of Nazi rule, a party classified as far-right has won elections by a large margin and may be able to enter government in two states.
Coalition talks remain at an early stage. Berlin is the only one of these cases where an outcome without AfD participation appears possible. In the September 20 Berlin vote, the AfD secured 16.3% of ballots, placing third behind Die Linke and the Christian Democratic Union, or CDU. Elsewhere, its electoral momentum has been much harder for established parties to ignore.
The party’s appeal is no longer confined to eastern Germany. In March 2026, the AfD won 18.8% of the vote in Baden-Württemberg, among Germany’s largest and most economically powerful states. That result was almost twice its 2021 showing. Further elections are due across western Germany in the months and years ahead, including in North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s most populous state.
If this pattern persists, the party could expand its influence in areas that have traditionally been less receptive to it. National polling for the next federal election already points in the same direction, with the AfD performing clearly ahead of the CDU, Germany’s principal conservative mainstream force.
Why India is watching closely
The implications extend beyond domestic German politics. The AfD opposes non-white immigration and has supported measures that could affect naturalised citizens in certain situations. Such positions carry particular significance for India because the Indian population in Germany has grown rapidly in recent years.
Indian nationals in Germany increased from 86,000 in 2015 to roughly 280,000 by early 2025. More than 152,000 work in roles subject to social security contributions, frequently in IT, engineering and other skilled professions. Nearly 59,000 are students, while the remaining estimated 69,000 are mainly relatives accompanying workers and students, including spouses and children.
This community is linked to Germany’s demand for highly qualified workers. Indian professionals have increasingly become part of the country’s technical, scientific and healthcare talent pool, while Indian students represent a potential future workforce. Immigration policy therefore has consequences not only for individual migrants, but also for businesses, universities and public services seeking specialised skills.
Debate over skilled migration
In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD’s governing programme calls for abandoning the recruitment of “foreign-culture skilled workers,” though it does not define that phrase. Ulrich Siegmund, who won the election in the state and is expected to become minister-president, did not answer a question submitted through the citizen platform abgeordnetenwatch.de about whether an Indian woman working as a doctor would fall into that category.
Siegmund has nevertheless indicated a different preferred approach to staffing shortages. Rather than depending on the 153 Syrian doctors practising in Saxony-Anhalt, he has argued for encouraging Germans who have left the country to return. During a televised election debate, he put the realistic number of potential returnees at “hundreds”.
“Hundreds”
That estimate is far below the scale needed to meet Germany’s broader requirement for skilled labour. The tension is central to the debate: Germany’s economy depends on qualified workers in many sectors, while a party gaining electoral support is advocating a narrower approach to migration and integration.
Citizenship and residency concerns
The AfD has also signalled support for examining completed naturalisations retroactively. In Bavaria, it sought a review of all naturalisations completed since 2016. Citizenship law, however, is governed at the federal level, meaning a state cannot introduce such a measure on its own.
Indians who have not yet obtained German citizenship could face the most immediate exposure if the AfD joins a state or federal government. Residency rules and work permissions could be tightened through political decisions affecting newcomers and long-term residents awaiting naturalisation.
People who are already German citizens have stronger legal protections. Naturalisation among Indians has risen sharply, nearly doubling from 2,775 cases in 2022 to 4,705 in 2024. Estimates by the Institute for Employment Research indicate that close to two in five people of Indian origin in Germany already possess German citizenship.
India’s restrictions on dual citizenship add another layer of complexity. More than 90% of Indians who become German citizens have given up their Indian passports. This means debates over citizenship revocation, including the AfD’s proposal concerning criminal “dual nationals”, touch a community whose legal and personal ties have often been reshaped permanently through naturalisation.
A Test for Partnership and Openness
India and Germany have strong reasons to maintain their expanding relationship, from defence technology and industrial cooperation to education and skilled employment. But political developments inside Germany may increasingly affect the human foundation of that partnership: Indian workers building careers, students pursuing qualifications and families making long-term decisions about where to live.
For Indian citizens considering Germany, electoral shifts make legal status, pathways to permanent residence and the direction of immigration policy more important than ever. For Germany, the challenge will be to reconcile an economy that needs international talent with a political debate increasingly shaped by demands for tighter control over migration.
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