Germany: Thuringia and Saxony Elections Propel Far-Right AfD

Voters in Germany’s federal states of Thuringia and Saxony came out in numbers on Sunday, putting the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on top, while strongly going against the parties that currently make up Germany’s federal coalition government.

Projections by German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, based on exit polls and partial counting, showed AfD coming first in Thuringia with a vote share between 32.8% and 33.4%.

The center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is forecast to come second with 23.8%.

The result marks the first time a far-right party finishes first in a state election in Germany since World War II.

The AfD leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, celebrated his party’s projected lead as a “historic victory.”

“We are ready to take government responsibility,” Höcke said.

But so far, no party has said they would be willing to be in a coalition with the AfD, making it hard for them to form a government.

The CDU’s national general secretary, Carsten Linnemann, said that “voters in both states knew that we wouldn’t form a coalition with the AfD, and it will stay that way.”

“We are very, very clear on this,” he added.

The two eastern states were once part of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and though they are relatively small, accounting for some 7% of Germany’s population, they remain a sign of the rising popularity of the AfD.

But the AfD branches in both Saxony and Thuringia have come under official surveillance as “proven right-wing extremist” groups. Höcke himself has been convicted of using a Nazi slogan at political events, although he has appealed the ruling.

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The CDU held a razor-thin lead in Saxony, with a projected vote share of between 31.5% and 31.8%, while the AfD is projected to land between 30.8% and 31.4%.

Incumbent state premier, the CDU’s Michael Kretschmer, said that regardless of the result, his party plans to lead coalition talks.

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