2023-07-03 18:13:49
The town of Raguhn-Jessnitzin the German state of Sajonia-Anhaltchose this Sunday which will be the first elected mayor far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), Hannes Loth.
Loth prevailed in the second round of the elections to the independent candidate Nils Naumann with 51.13% of the votes, compared to 48.87% for Naumann, according to preliminary official data published by the city council of this town of 9,000 inhabitants in the east of the country. Participation was 61.51%.
“I am surprised and ecstatic and I want to thank all the voters,” said Loth, who has served as a regional deputy since 2016. The new mayor announced that he will also work for those who have not voted for him. The campaign focused on local issues such as fire department resourcescenters for the elderly or greater citizen participation.
Second institutional victory
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This is the second institutional victory for the AfD in a week after Robert Sesselmann became the first district administrator in Sonneberg in the state of Thuringia. “After the first canton, we now have the first full-time mayor of the AfD,” a party official, Christian Blex, celebrated on social media. Some towns in Germany have previously had ultra training mayors in the past, but these were voluntary positions that they combined with paid jobs.
This last result comes in a context of strong growth in the polls of this anti-immigration, eurosceptic formation and defender of pro-Russian postulates founded a decade ago. According to a poll by the Insa institute published on Sunday by the Sunday newspaper ‘Bild’, the AfD is situated, with 20% of voting intentions, ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, which would obtain 19%. In the last legislative elections of 2021, the ultras reaped 10.3% of the votes.
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