AfD's Leif-Erik Holm vies for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern premiership against SPD incumbent

Leif-Erik Holm, who previously worked as a radio moderator for NDR and local stations, is the AfD’s minister-president candidate for the upcoming Mecklenburg-Vorpommern election, challenging incumbent SPD premier Manula Schwesig. He adopts a calmer, reform-oriented tone compared with figures like Ulrich Siegmund, yet political scientist Wolfgang Muno calls him a “last-generation” AfD member as the party moves toward more radical actors, including Enrico Schult and Björn Höcke.

Holm’s platform rejects extreme measures such as abolishing the right to asylum, focusing instead on concrete steps like returning 400 trained teachers to schools, prohibiting gender-neutral language in government offices, and terminating the public-broadcast contract with NDR. He also signals openness to post-election negotiations to “fill the trenches” with other parties, although analysts doubt he can secure coalition partners. If he does not win, Holm will remain in the Bundestag, as he is not standing for the state parliament.