MWith a relaxed expression, Saxony’s CDU General Secretary Alexander Dierks appeared before the media in Dresden on Monday. After the district and mayoral elections on Sunday, the Union, which has always provided all district administrators in the Free State since 1990, is not in a bad starting position. Three of their nine district administrator candidates won in the first ballot, seven years ago all CDU candidates had managed to do so. “We see very, very good chances for the second ballot,” said Dierks. However, this is not the case for one constituency.
In Central Saxony, a large rural district in which the AfD had placed an engineer who was considered moderate and had hoped for their first district administrator in Germany, the non-party Dirk Neubauer, who supports the Greens, SPD and Left Party, won the most votes with a good 41 percent. His CDU competitor received 30, the AfD applicant 28.7 percent. Four years earlier, the CDU had marched through here with 65 percent. Now there is a chance “to break the CDU phalanx,” said Neubauer, who could hardly believe his result.
Protest against Berlin is easier
Inevitably, Saxony’s AfD chairman Jörg Urban was far less euphoric. “We have not achieved our goal of providing Germany’s first AfD district administrator,” he said. “It won’t be easy to get ahead in the second round.” The party achieved its best result in the district of Görlitz, where its candidate achieved 35.5 percent, but ended up almost eleven percent behind the CDU candidate.
Relieved: Saxony’s CDU General Secretary Alexander Dierks
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Image: dpa
Although the AfD was still able to collect almost a quarter of all votes on average, this was not enough to win, unlike in the federal election in September, where it won almost all constituencies. Once again, an effect that can already be observed in previous elections is evident: when it comes to Brussels or Berlin, protest is easier to address than with a candidate on your own doorstep. Many apparently shy away from the bad reputation that a district or municipality with an AfD representative would have.
“In local politics, populism is reaching its limits,” says CDU man Dierks. “When it comes to concrete things on the ground, trust is gained by those who make constructive politics with a confident approach, and not by those who talk everything to the ground.” AfD boss Urban, on the other hand, sees the main causes in voter turnout – not times half of all those eligible to vote went to the polls on Sunday – as well as the lack of awareness of their own applicants, since district and mayoral elections are more about voting on people than on parties. “We now have to evaluate internally why our people are not so successful.”
This also applied to the AfD candidate for the mayoral office in Dresden, Maximilian Krah, who took 4th place with 14.2 percent. In the state capital, incumbent Dirk Hilbert, who is supported by the FDP and CDU, clearly won the first ballot with 32.5 percent ahead of the Greens (18.9) and the SPD (15.2). But in the second ballot in mid-July, for the first time since 1990, there is a realistic chance of a mayor outside of the CDU and FDP. to support.
In Saxony, as in Baden-Württemberg, there is no run-off between the two best-placed candidates; each applicant can run again in the second ballot. It is therefore eagerly awaited how AfD man Krah decides. If he stays in the race, the chances of a future green mayor are good, if he withdraws, incumbent Hilbert could have an advantage.