Germany's far right to gain in eastern regional vote According to Reuters
Written by Riham Alkousaa and Sarah Marsh
BERLIN (Reuters) – The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was on Sunday looking to become the first far-right party to win a regional election in Germany since the Second World War, but it was almost certain that it would be ousted from power. rival teams.
The AfD was expected to win 33.1% of the vote in the state of Thuringia, well ahead of the conservatives' 24.3%, broadcaster ZDF said. In the neighboring state of Saxony, the Conservatives led on 31.9%, almost half a point ahead of the AfD.
With a year to go before Germany's general election, the results look damning for Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition. All three of these parties lost votes, along with the smaller partners, the Greens and the Free Democrats, as they missed the 5% required to remain in parliament.
The last week of this campaign was overshadowed by the killing of three people at an event in the city of Solingen in a knife attack, allegedly carried out by an illegal Syrian citizen whom the authorities failed to deport. The anti-immigration AfD may have fueled the crisis.
“This is a coalition demand,” said AfD coalition leader Alice Weidel. “The coalition must ask itself whether it can continue to govern.”
The populist left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which like the AfD wants minorities to emigrate and end arming Ukraine, came third in both states just eight months after it was founded.
“That has never happened before in German history,” said Wagenknecht, the former Communist after whom the party was named.
Since all parties have decided to cooperate with the AfD, the BSW could be crucial in forming a stable government in the two states, which have remained economically backward in western Germany more than three decades after reunification.
A poor result for Scholz's coalition could deepen the conflict within the already fractious alliance in Berlin as all three parties seek to show their identity ahead of next year's general election.
For Weidel, his party's strong performance in both states was proof that it was unlikely that his party would be out of power.
“Voters want AfD in government,” he said. “Without us, a stable government will not be possible.”
Bodo Ramelow, the prime minister of Thuringia, whose left-wing party was persecuted despite being popular, said that all democratic parties must now work together.
“I'm not fighting conservatives. I'm not fighting BSW. I'm fighting mainstream fascism,” he said.
