Petr Bystron MEP: Why AfD Won First Place in Saxony-Anhalt and What It Means Nationally

Join us for another episode of Hearts of Oak Podcast, where we're honoured to have the return of Petr Bystron, a Member of the European Parliament representing the Alternative for Germany (AfD), as our guest. In this episode, Petr Bystron gives the background to the AfD’s result in Saxony-Anhalt — a win so large, he says, yet the old parties still refuse to govern with them. He walks through the vote, the so-called firewall, Friedrich Merz’s deal with the Social Democrats, and why he thinks the CDU has left the ground it held under Helmut Kohl. He also talks about Merz and Trump, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, and where the AfD goes next. Petr Bystron is the highest-ranking foreign politician of the AfD: He has been Chairman of the AfD in the Foreign Committee of the German Bundestag since 2017. Since 2021 he has been the foreign policy spokesman for his party and its representative in the Council of Europe and the Interparliamentary Union (IPU). He was the first AfD politician to be officially received by an incumbent president (Milos Zeman) and the first European to receive the „Eagle Award “ from the conservative US Phyllis Schlafly Foundation. He was born in the USSR, from which he fled to Germany at the age of 16, where he received political asylum. Thirty years later, he faced similar persecution in Bavaria: during the 2017 election campaign, he was subjected to an illegal house search and it was announced that he was being monitored by the Bavarian secret service. In addition to these state reprisals, he is always the target of attacks by left-wing extremists. Petr Bystron is one of the founding members of the AfD. From 2015 to 2017 he was the state leader of the party in Bavaria. He took over the party in a crisis and led it from 3.5% of the vote to the best election result of all western federal states in the 2017 federal election with 12.7%. He founded and headed his party's National Committee for European and Foreign Policy (2013-2015). He studied political science at the University of Politics and the Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich and has been working as a journalist for years. His articles on business and politics have been published in renowned daily newspapers and magazines in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Petr is married, has two children and has lived in his constituency of Munich North for more than 30 years.  Interview recorded 10th September 2026 Connect with Petr and The AfD... 𝕏                        x.com/PetrBystronAfD                           x.com/AfDimBundestag INSTAGRAM      instagram.com/petr.bystron WEBSITE           petrbystron.de   Connect with Hearts of Oak... 𝕏                         x.com/HeartsofOakUK WEBSITE            heartsofoak.org/ PODCASTS        heartsofoak.podbean.com/ SOCIAL MEDIA  heartsofoak.org/connect/ SHOP                  heartsofoak.org/shop/ *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on 𝕏 x.com/TheBoschFawstin