2023-06-25 21:15:11
BERLIN (Reuters) – For the first time, a candidate from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has won the vote for district leader in Europe’s biggest economy, a breakthrough for the party that has been rising in national polls.
The 10-year-old AfD, with which Germany’s main parties officially refuse to cooperate due to radical views, won the second round in the Sonneberg district of Thuringia state, with its candidate taking 52.8% of the vote.
It is the latest success for the party, which is riding a wave of popular discontent in Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition with the Greens and Free Democrats (FDP), which is beset by infighting over policy and the budget.
With 19% to 20% in the polls behind opposition Conservatives, the AfD is playing on voters’ fears about recession, migration and the green transition, analysts say. It even plans to nominate a chancellor candidate in the 2025 federal election. The party is particularly strong in the formerly communist east.
A clear victory for the AfD’s Robert Sesselmann in the district, which has a population of around 56,000, sends a signal to Berlin, analysts say, especially as every other party in Sonneberg has joined forces against him.
While far-right parties have been gaining ground in Europe, the AfD’s strength is particularly sensitive in Germany given the country’s Nazi past.
The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, expressed deep shock.
“This is a watershed that the democratic political forces of this country cannot simply accept,” he told RND media.
The domestic intelligence agency said this month that right-wing extremism poses the biggest threat to democracy in Germany and warned voters about supporting the AfD.
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