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This Sunday, many eyes in German politics will likely be on the quiet Sonneberg district in the far south of the eastern German state of Thuringia. In the area bordering Bavaria, a runoff could be Germany’s first election in which a politician from the part-right AfD is elected as a district administrator, ie the highest municipal official.
In the first vote on June 11, AfD politician Robert Stuhlmann (50) just missed the absolute majority with 46.7 percent of the vote. Now he will take on CDU man Jürgen Köpper. A victory in the district, which has a population of just 56,000, would be a prestigious success for the party, which was founded a decade ago and currently ranks high in opinion polls across Germany.
The AfD wants to nominate its own chancellor candidate for the upcoming federal elections. When asked whether the AfD is considering such a move given the currently high polling numbers, co-group leader Alice Weidel said in the RTL/NTV program Frühstart on Wednesday: “Of course. We would have done so without these values to nominate a chancellor candidate. »
Weidel added that a corresponding decision had to be made at a federal party conference: “We don’t have to decide that alone, our members do.” When asked if she thought she was capable of becoming chancellor, Weidel answered evasively: “You can have a lot of confidence, but it’s completely open who will compete there.”
In current polls, the AfD has reached a record high of 19 percent at the federal level. However, no Bundestag party would be willing to govern with the AfD. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution this year classified the party as a far-right “suspicious case”.
The AfD wants to nominate its own chancellor candidate for the upcoming federal elections. When asked whether the AfD is considering such a move given the currently high polling numbers, co-group leader Alice Weidel said in the RTL/NTV program Frühstart on Wednesday: “Of course. We would have done so without these values to nominate a chancellor candidate. »
Weidel added that a corresponding decision had to be made at a federal party conference: “We don’t have to decide that alone, our members do.” When asked if she thought she was capable of becoming chancellor, Weidel answered evasively: “You can have a lot of confidence, but it’s completely open who will compete there.”
In current polls, the AfD has reached a record high of 19 percent at the federal level. However, no Bundestag party would be willing to govern with the AfD. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution this year classified the party as a far-right “suspicious case”.
In the 2021 federal election, the AfD (Alternative for Germany) was only fifth strongest with 10.3 percent. With values of up to 20 percent in some polls, it is now ahead of the Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (65) and as the second strongest force behind the Christian Democrats of opposition leader Friedrich Merz (67).
“Dissatisfaction with the exuberant green zeitgeist”
In the east of the republic it is even higher: in Thuringia, but also in Saxony and Brandenburg, it could become the strongest party in the autumn 2024 state elections.
The established parties in Berlin are in a state of excitement. The ruling ‘traffic light’ coalition of SPD, FDP and Greens and the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) blame each other for the rise of right-wing populists, while pollsters try to get to the bottom of AfD sympathizers’ motives.
“The AfD is benefiting on the one hand from the concerns of a growing number of citizens about the magnitude and consequences of migration and, on the other hand, from fears about the costs of the government’s energy and climate policies,” political scientist Jürgen Falter from Mainz recently said. to the German press agency. In an interview with the daily newspaper “Welt”, the head of the opinion research institute Forsa, Manfred Güllner, in turn identified “increasing resentment of the exuberant green zeitgeist” in Germany as one of the reasons for the strengthening of the AfD.
refugee issue
The number of asylum seekers from countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey has risen sharply again this year. Villages and districts are struggling to accommodate them, especially since more than a million refugees have come to Germany from Ukraine since the war began in February 2022. In the field of energy, on the other hand, the “traffic light” coalition’s first draft of the building energy law drove many citizens to the barricades, who feared the appalling costs of replacing their oil and gas heating systems. The design, with which the “traffic light” aims to achieve more climate protection, has now been revised.
The AfD, which was founded in 2013 as an opponent of the euro, is benefiting from this displeasure. Over the years it has shifted to the right. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (domestic secret service) has classified the entire AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist. The administrative court in Cologne rejected a lawsuit brought by the AfD, against which the party has appealed. The regional association AfD in Thuringia has been classified as “safe extremist” since 2021.
The AfD is demanding that migrants without entry permits be refused entry at the border to close “Germany’s asylum haven”. The “traffic light”, on the other hand, wants to facilitate immigration and naturalization. For energy supplies, the AfD remains dependent on coal, nuclear energy and Russian natural gas. She opposes arms shipments to Ukraine. Your rather pro-Russian stance in the Ukraine conflict has been well received in East Germany, but has not contributed to the recent high in the polls, according to Güllner.
AfD-Weidel: People are tired of “traffic lights”.
Chancellor Scholz called the AfD a “bad mood party” that benefits from many people feeling insecure “at a time of turmoil”. AfD co-boss Alice Weidel (44) sees it differently. “What is reflected here is that people are fed up with everything that comes from the ‘traffic light’ government and, of course, the previous government,” she said in the poll last week.
All other parties strongly reject cooperation with the AfD. That could make forming a government after the 2024 state elections in East Germany difficult. It is possible that only alliances of Christians, Social Democrats, Greens and Lefts that bridge all ideological divides will achieve a majority. Germany is heading for “a structural crisis in its party system,” warned the liberal-conservative magazine “Cicero”.
«habituation effect»
Last Sunday, the AfD failed to capture the city hall of a capital city for the first time. In the second round in Schwerin in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, mayor Rico Badenschier (44, SPD) won former radio presenter Leif-Erik Holm (52). But it was the first time ever that the AfD had won a runoff election in a capital city.
In Sonneberg, SPD, FDP, Left and Greens unanimously called for the election of the CDU candidate Köpper on Sunday. Should Stuhlmann win, the Jena party researcher Torsten Oppelland fears a habituation effect. “So if an AfD man becomes a district administrator in the Sonneberg district and the lights don’t go out, that can help make the AfD more selectable,” he told the “Thuringian general”. (SDA/kes)
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
