Germany’s far-right AfD party wins first state election in exit polls

BERLIN: Germany’s far-right AfD won a landmark first regional vote on Sunday (Sep 1) in the former East German state of Thuringia, exit polls showed, in a blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz ahead of national elections in 2025.
The AfD took between 30.5 and 33.5 per cent of the vote in Thuringia, according to exit polls, with the conservative CDU in second place at around 24.5 per cent.
The CDU had its nose in front with the AfD a close second in the neighbouring state of Saxony, which also held a regional election on Sunday, the polls showed.
The AfD is unlikely to come to power in either state because other parties have ruled out working with the far right to form a government.
But the result is still a political earthquake as it would represent the first time in Germany’s post-World War II history that a far-right party has won a state election.
If confirmed, it would also be a huge blow for Scholz’s Social Democrats and the other parties in his fractious coalition government, the Greens and the liberal FDP.
The SPD looked to have scored between 6.5 and 7 per cent in Thuringia, and between 7.5 and 8.5 per cent in Saxony.
During the election campaign, the AfD had capitalised on dissatisfaction with the government, including anger over migration and misgivings about support for Ukraine.
Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the AfD, hailed the result as a “historic success”, while the party’s other co-leader, Tino Chrupalla, said the party had a “clear mandate for government” in Thuringia.
Chrupalla said both states had sent the message that “there should be a change of politics” and the AfD was “ready and willing to talk to all parties”.
However, the CDU’s general secretary Carsten Linnemann on Sunday said voters knew “we do not form coalitions with the AfD”.
Thuringia, one of Germany’s more rural states, was an early centre of support for the Nazi party, which first came to power there in 1930 as part of a coalition government.
Bjoern Hoecke, the controversial head of the AfD in the state, told the ARD broadcaster his party was the “people’s party in Thuringia”.
“We need change and change will only come with the AfD,” he said, hailing the “historic result”.
Scholz’s coalition partners, the Greens and the FDP, had a dismal night in both states, scoring even less than the SPD.
Marianne Kneuer, a professor of politics at the Dresden University of Technology, called the exit polls “alarming”.
“If you add up the vote share of the AfD and BSW, you come to over 40 per cent in Thuringia and Saxony. And that is frightening because it shows that the democratic parties of the centre … have shrunk significantly,” she said.
The contests in Thuringia and Saxony come just over a week after three people were killed in a knife attack in the western city of Solingen, which has fuelled a bitter debate over immigration in Germany.