Reuters, AFP and Europa Press

The newspaper La Jornada
Monday, September 2, 2024, p. 31

Erfurt – The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the regional elections in Thuringia on Monday and is hot on the heels of the conservatives in Saxony, according to exit polls, in results unprecedented since the Second World War that are a major blow for Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The AfD is currently polling at 33.1 percent of the vote in the state of Thuringia, ahead of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on 24.3 percent, according to projections by German public broadcaster ZDF.

In neighbouring Saxony, where elections were also held, the CDU is ahead with 32 percent of the vote, while the AfD is expected to get between 30 and 31.5 percent.

This is a requiem for the coalitionsaid AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, adding that her party’s strong results in both states are proof that it is no longer possible to keep her party out of power.

Voters want AfD in government because Without us, it is not possible to have stabilityhe stressed.

In both states, the Sahra Wagenknecht-Alliance for Reason and Justice (BSW) came in third place, a party whose discourse ranges from communist economic policy to the anti-immigrant theme of the AfD.

In Saxony, the BSW is expected to win 11.4 percent of the vote, while in Thuringia it is expected to win 15.4 percent, pending official results.

Both the AfD and BSW won support for their anti-immigration rhetoric and calls to halt arms deliveries to Ukraine, a position that is very popular in these regions that belonged to the former German Democratic Republic and where fear of war remains deep-rooted, the AFP news agency reported.

In Saxony, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) came in fourth with 8.5 percent, followed by the Greens with 5.5 percent, while the Left received 4 percent, which would keep it out of the regional parliament.

With these results, at the level of both states, it will be BSW that decides which formation will govern.