The German Far Right Celebrates Their "Historic" Election Win In The East.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD), which opposes immigration, is jubilant about a “historic success” that saw the far-right party win a significant majority in the eastern state of Thuringia.
With over a third of the vote, the AfD defeated Germany’s three ruling parties by a margin of nine points over the conservative CDU.
The extreme right has not been this successful in state parliament elections since World War Two, but other parties are reluctant to cooperate with it, so it has little chance of forming a government in Thuringia.
In the larger neighboring state of Saxony, where there was also a significant state election on Sunday, the AfD finished in close second place.
Results there indicated the CDU had 31.9% of the vote, barely ahead of the AfD and again far ahead of the three political parties controlling the federal government: the liberal FDP, the Greens, and the Social Democrats.
“Bitter” was how Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the results, and he urged other mainstream parties to build state governments that do not include the far right. “Germany is suffering from the AfD. It is undermining the economy, fracturing society, and damaging the reputation of our nation,” he told Reuters in a statement.
Björn Höcke, the AfD’s most prominent candidate in Thuringia and a very contentious personality in Germany, celebrated a “historic victory” and expressed his immense pride. Despite not receiving a straight mandate for the state legislature, he was able to earn a seat due to his superior standing on the party list.
Despite his denials, Mr. Höcke, a former history teacher, has been punished for adopting a Nazi slogan and his party labeled as right-wing extremist.
Charlotte Knobloch, one of the most well-known Holocaust survivors in Germany, noted that the election was held exactly 85 years after the Second World War began. The nation was at risk of becoming “more unstable, colder and poorer, less safe and less worth living in” as a result of the outcome, she warned.
National opinion polls show the AfD in second place, with just a year to go until the federal elections. According to co-leader Alice Weidel, the outcome was a “requiem” for the three parties in power in Germany and demonstrated the unambiguous will of the electorate in both of the country’s eastern states for her party to rule.
“Without us, a stable government is no longer possible at all,” she stated.
Björn Höcke reiterated this point, pointing out that many CDU voters would be content if they collaborated.
The CDU has made it clear that it would not consider ruling with the far right, and the AfD cannot rule Thuringia without the backing of other parties.
In terms of math, the conservatives require left-leaning parties’ support in order to secure a majority.
Five million Germans in the east were able to cast ballots on Sunday, and a survey conducted for public broadcaster ZDF found that 36% of Thuringia’s under-30 population supported the AfD, far more than any other party.
For AfD voters on Sunday, immigration—more specifically, the topic of refugees and asylum—was the main concern.
“In Thuringia’s state capital, Erfurt, politicians have made a lot of promises, especially with regard to immigration and foreigners,” AfD voter Michael said to the BBC.
However, nothing took place. Nothing. These parties only offered promises. I have my party right now. He said, “And I stand by my decision,” pointing to his partner Manuela, who concurred that change was desired.
Less than a week before the election, three murders at a street fair in Solingen, western Germany, rekindled the national debate over asylum, and a Syrian man who was deportable was detained on suspicion of carrying out the crime.
Beatrix von Storch, the deputy head of the AfD, claimed on the BBC’s Newshour that her party’s asylum policy had been attacked as radical for years by political rivals. “They began to do what we always said had to be done two days before the election,” she remarked, alluding to a slew of government actions meant to strengthen asylum regulations.
Both the AfD and the BSW, a new party led by left-wing populist Sahra Wagenknecht and now polling third in both states, want to halt supplying arms to Ukraine.
Despite sharing similar views with the AfD about Ukraine, Ms. Wagenknecht has declined to form a coalition with the far-right, just like the other parties.
Only one of the three parties in the national government is represented in the 88-seat Thuringia state parliament, where the AfD holds 32 seats and the CDU 23. These are the preliminary findings.
With almost one-third of the seats now held by the AfD, it will have the ability to veto actions requiring a two-thirds majority, such as appointing judges or amending the state constitution.
With no seats expected for the Greens or the liberal FDP, Chancellor Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) is expected to win just six seats.
The conservatives secured 42 seats in Saxony, just surpassing the AfD’s 41 seats. Sahra Wagenknecht’s party secured the third position with 15 seats.
The results of Sunday’s elections have highlighted how unpopular the “traffic-light” coalition—named for the red, yellow, and green party colors—is in Germany.
Three weeks from now, a third eastern state, Brandenburg, is scheduled to vote. While the AfD leads the opinion surveys, the Social Democrats and conservatives trail by a narrow margin.
Anti-AfD demonstrators gathered outside the Thuringia state parliament as Björn Höcke celebrated his party’s victory with supporters in Erfurt.
Both in Saxony and Thuringia, domestic intelligence has labeled the AfD as right-wing extremist. A German court decided in May that the BfV intelligence agency had good reason to monitor the AfD due to possible extremism.
Hannah, a local student, was among the demonstrators and expressed her concern about the outcome, saying, “I think there are a lot of people who are aware they have Nazi policies and don’t care.” Germany bears considerable accountability in that regard.”
The Left party, which emerged victorious in the most recent Thuringian election but is currently in fourth position, was directly impacted by the growth of Sahra Wagenknecht’s populist party.
The Left-party state premier of Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow, who had headed a coalition with the Greens and SPD, claimed that fear had typified the election campaign and that he was “fighting against the normalisation of fascism.”.
