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03-09-2024
BERLIN: Germany’s anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) is celebrating a “historic success”, with the far-right party on course for a big victory in the eastern state of Thuringia.
The AfD is set to win almost a third of the vote, according to a projection for public broadcaster ARD, nine points ahead of the conservative CDU, and far in front of Germany’s three governing parties.
The result would give the far right its first vote win in a state parliament since World War Two, although it has little hope of forming a government in Thuringia.
The AfD came a close second in Sunday’s other big state election, in the more populous neighboring state of Saxony.
Projections there gave the CDU almost 32% of the vote, a point ahead of the AfD, again far ahead of the three parties running the national government, the Social Democrats, Greens and liberal FDP.
The AfD’s top candidate in Thuringia, Bjorn Hocke, who is a highly controversial figure in Germany, hailed a “historic victory” and spoke of his great pride. He reportedly failed to win a direct mandate for the state parliament, but could still win a seat because he is top of his party list.
Hocke’s party has been designated as right-wing extremist and he has been fined for using a Nazi slogan, although the former history teacher denies knowingly doing so.
One of Germany’s best-known Holocaust survivors, Charlotte Knobloch, pointed out that the election had taken place 85 years to the day since the outbreak of World War Two. The result had left the country in danger of becoming “more unstable, colder and poorer, less safe and less worth living in”, she said.
With federal elections only a year away, the AfD is second in national opinion polls. Co-leader Alice Weidel said the result was a “requiem” for the three parties running Germany. And it was clear that voters in both eastern states wanted her party in government: “Without us a stable government is no longer possible at all.”
That message was repeated by Bjorn Hocke, who suggested there were plenty of CDU voters who would be happy if they worked together.
Without the support of other parties, the AfD cannot govern in Thuringia, and the CDU has made clear it will not consider ruling with the far right.
Mathematically, the conservatives will need support from parties on the left to form a majority.
Some five million Germans in the east were eligible to vote on Sunday and, according to a survey for public broadcaster ZDF, 36% of under-30s in Thuringia voted for the AfD, far more than any other party.
The biggest issue for AfD voters on Sunday was immigration, and in particular the issue of refugees and asylum.
“Politicians have promised a lot, particularly concerning migration and foreigners,” AfD voter Michael told media.
“But nothing happened. Nothing. Just promises came from these parties. Now I have my party and I stand with my decision,” he said, standing beside his partner Manuela, who agreed that people wanted change.
The asylum issue was re-ignited nationally little more than a week before the vote, when three people were murdered at a street festival at Solingen in western Germany, and a Syrian man facing deportation was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack. AfD deputy leader Beatrix von Storch told media that political opponents had been attacking her party’s asylum policies as extremist for years. “Two days ahead of the election they started to do what we always said had to be done,” she said, referring to a series of government measures aimed at toughening asylum laws. (Int’l News Desk)
