Berlin (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Germany’s far-right AfD succeeded in a landmark first regional vote in the former East German state of Thuringia, exit polls indicated, in a setback 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 approximately 24.5 per cent. The AfD was also neck-and-neck with the CDU for first position in the neighbouring state of Saxony, which also carried a regional election, the polls showed.
What are the implications of AfD’s historic success?
According to experts, the AfD is unlikely to come into control in either state because other parties have ruled out operating with the far right to form a government. But the outcome is still a political earthquake as it would convey the first time in Germany’s post-World War II history that a far-right party has succeeded in a state election. If authorised, it would also be a massive blow for Scholz’s Social Democrats and the other parties in his fractious union government, the Greens and the liberal FDP. The SPD looked to have achieved between 6.5 and 7 per cent in Thuringia and between 7.5 and 8.5 per cent in Saxony.
What did Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla say about the results?
Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the AfD, commanded the result as a “historic success”, while the party’s other co-leader, Tino Chrupalla, expressed the party had a “clear mandate for government” in Thuringia. Chrupalla expressed both states had sent the message that “there should be a difference of politics” and the AfD was “ready and willing to talk to all parties”.
Bjoern Hoecke, the controversial leader of the AfD in Thuringia, 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 stated, hailing the “historic result”. Hoecke is one of Germany’s most contentious far-right politicians and was fined twice this year for deliberately manipulating a banned Nazi slogan.
