Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing has warned that last month’s run of state-election gains by parties at Germany’s political extremes risks driving away foreign investors — a signal worth watching for anyone with money already in, or weighing a move into, German property or businesses. In an interview with the German daily Bild, Sewing said the trend “poses a significant risk to Germany,” and that foreign investors do not reliably separate a single state’s result from their overall read on the country: a regional outcome gets treated as a verdict on Germany as a whole.
The warning follows three state and city elections held in quick succession in September 2026. In Saxony-Anhalt on September 6, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won 43.8% of the vote — its best-ever result and more than double its 2021 score — taking 39 of 83 seats and narrowly missing an outright majority by three seats, on record-high turnout of 77.8% for the state since reunification. Two weeks later, on September 20, the AfD took first place in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with 38.2% of the vote, while on the same day in Berlin’s city election, the socialist Left Party won its best-ever result with 25.7% of the vote, overtaking the governing CDU-SPD coalition. The Left Party campaigned on a pledge to expropriate large private landlords’ residential property holdings to address Berlin’s housing costs — a platform Reuters notes has drawn its own separate investor concern, distinct from the AfD-related worries in the two eastern states.
Sewing told Bild the situation is “anything but conducive to economic growth” and called on Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition government to press on with economic reform, describing continued reform as the only real answer to extremist gains on both the right and the left. Economists cited in the same Reuters report have separately accused the AfD of fostering a climate that could drive away both skilled foreign workers and foreign investors from the affected states.
Sewing has sounded similar warnings before past German state elections, including after the 2024 Saxony and Thuringia votes. What distinguishes this round, per his own framing to Bild, is that the warning now follows actual election results rather than pre-vote polling, and spans three separate contests — two to the AfD, one to the Left Party — in a single month.
References
Reuters via The Star Malaysia – Deutsche Bank Chief Warns German Election Results Worrying Foreign Investors / Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb.de) – Landtagswahl in Sachsen-Anhalt 2026: AfD stärkste Kraft
