Far-right Alternative for Germany wins east German state Thuringia election: exit polls – Euractiv

Exit polls showed that the far-right Alternative for Germany party won the state election in Thuringia in eastern Germany on Sunday (September 1) with 30.5% of the votes, marking the party’s first victory in a state election.

On Sunday (September 1), nearly 5 million people in the eastern German states of Saxony and Thuringia were eligible to vote in elections for new state parliaments.

In the smaller state of Thuringia, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won the first state election in German history with 30.5 percent of the vote, according to exit polls for the public broadcaster. ARD.

According to exit polls, the center-right Christian Democratic Union (EPP) came in second with 24.5 percent of the vote, ahead of the new left populist party BSW with 16 percent.

The left-wing party led by current state Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow, which has so far formed a minority government with the Social Democrats and the Greens, lost more than half of the votes compared to the last election in 2019, winning only 12.5% ​​of the votes this time.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) won 7 percent of the vote, while its national coalition partners the Greens and the liberal FDP failed to win enough votes to secure representation in the next state parliament.

Conservatives win narrow victory in Saxony

In Saxony, the Christian Democratic Union, led by incumbent state premier Michael Kretschmer, narrowly won with 31.5 percent of the vote, ahead of the Alternative for Germany, which received 30 percent, according to the public broadcaster. ARD.

BSW also came in third place in Saxony, winning 12% of the vote.

Kretschmer currently forms a coalition government with the Greens and the Social Democrats, who received 5.5% and 8.5% of the vote respectively, making it likely that both parties will be represented in the next state parliament.

Both countries were part of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and 34 years after reunification, they still Low levels of wealth, wages and GDP per capita Even worse than their West German counterparts.

The AfD’s branches in Saxony and Thuringia are seen as particularly radical, with domestic intelligence agencies in both states deeming them “definitely far-right”.

In a self-commitment known as a “firewall”, all other parties have ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD, although neither the CDU nor the SPD have ruled out voting with the AfD in certain policy areas.

The campaign was dominated by national rather than regional issues, including Ukraine War and immigration policies, especially Islamic terrorist attacks August 23, the West German town of Solingen.

(Editing by Daniel Ek)

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