Anti-immigration populists top German regional election

[Pelican Press 0]

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Anti-immigration populists top ******* regional election

The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany is on track to become the strongest party in a state election for the first time and at least a very close second to mainstream conservatives in a second vote, projections suggest.

But the populist party was almost certain to be excluded from power by rival parties, who regard the AfD as anti-democratic and extremist.

The AfD was set to win 33.1 per cent of the vote in the state of Thuringia, comfortably ahead of the ************* ********** Democratic Union’s 24.3 per cent, broadcaster ZDF’s projection showed.

In the neighbouring state of Saxony, the conservatives led on 31.9 per cent, about half a percentage point ahead of the AfD.

With a year to go until Germany’s general election, the results look punishing for Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition.

All three parties lost votes, with junior partners the Greens and Free Democrats on the cusp of missing the five per cent threshold needed to stay in state parliament.

“An openly right-wing extremist party has become the strongest force in a state parliament for the first time since 1949, and that causes many people very deep concern and *****,” said Omid Nouripour, a leader of the Greens.

The campaign’s final week was overshadowed by the ******** of three people at a festival in the city of Solingen in a ****** *******, allegedly by an illegally resident Syrian citizen whom authorities had ******* to deport.

The anti-immigration AfD may have drawn momentum from the tragedy.

“This is a requiem for the coalition,” the AfD’s ****** leader Alice Weidel said.

“The coalition should ask itself whether it can continue to govern at all.”

The progressive populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which like the AfD wants less immigration and an end to arming Ukraine, came third in both states just eight months after its founding.

“That has never happened before in ******* history,” said Wagenknecht, a former ********** after whom the party is named.

With all parties having ruled out working with the AfD, the BSW could be crucial to forming a stable government in the two states, which lag western Germany economically more than three decades after reunification.

Wagenknecht, who has described her politics as “left-*************,” said her party would not go into a coalition with the AfD but might be open to voting for individual AfD proposals in state parliament.

The AfD is at its strongest in Germany’s formerly ********** east, and the domestic intelligence agency has the party’s branches in both Saxony and Thuringia under official surveillance as “proven right-wing extremist” groups.

Its leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, has been convicted of knowingly using a ***** slogan at political events but is appealing.

Höcke bristled when an ARD interviewer mentioned the intelligence agency’s assessment, responding: “Please stop stigmatising me. We are the No. 1 party in Thuringia. You don’t want to classify one-third of the voters in Thuringia as right-wing extremist.”

He said he felt “a great, great deal of pride” in Sunday’s result for his 11-year-old party and “the old parties should show humility”.

The AfD again made overtures toward the BSW on Sunday night, and Höcke declared himself ready to former the next government in Thuringia.

But Wagenknecht criticised Höcke on TV.

“Mr Höcke represents a völkisch (ethno-nationalist) world view, which is miles away from us,” Wagenknecht said.

“We have always said that we cannot work with Mr Höcke.”

The disastrous result for Scholz’s coalition could further stoke conflict within an already fractious coalition in Berlin as all three parties seek to assert their identity ahead of next year’s general election.

For Weidel, her party’s strong performance in both states was evidence that it was no longer possible to keep her party out of power.

“The voters want the AfD in government,” she said.

“Without us, a stable government is not possible.”

***** Ramelow, the premier of Thuringia, whose Left party was battered despite his personal popularity, said all democratic parties now had to work together.

“I am not fighting the conservatives. I am not fighting the BSW. I am fighting the normalisation of fascism,” he said.

with AP and DPA

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