Far right set to win in a German state for the first time since WWII

BERLIN — Projections in Germany’s closely watched elections Sunday showed the anti-migrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party leading in one state and running a close second in another, a result that, if confirmed by official tallies, would see a far-right party win a state for the first time in the country’s postwar history. The projections, based on early vote counts and commissioned by public broadcaster ARD, showed the AfD well ahead with 32.8 percent in the state of Thuringia, and claiming 30.8 percent in Saxony — 1 percentage point behind the center-right Christian Democrats. In both states in eastern Germany — which has become a stronghold of the far right — other parties have refused to cooperate with the AfD, meaning it is unlikely to form part of any new state governments. Advertisement Deemed an extremist organization by domestic intelligence in three German states, and under investigation by national authorities for Islamophobia and its radical anti-migrant stances, the AfD has managed to overcome deep-seated taboos over nationalist politics. “For the first time since World War II, we have a far-right party coming in first place in an election here in Germany,” said Sudha David-Wilp, director of the German Marshall Fund’s Berlin office. The mainstream parties have to realize that the [AfD] is here to stay.” Projections showed the centrist parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s national governing coalition — the center-left Social Democrats, the Green Party and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP)— struggling with single-digit backing in both states, although none of the three parties has traditionally performed well there. Advertisement Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a pro-Russian populist party of the far left, also made significant inroads, posting double digits in both states just eight months after the party was founded. Although the ruling parties were expecting a drubbing, David-Wilp said the issues driving sentiment in the two states — frustrations over migration, the war in Ukraine and the high costs of living — were nationwide problems. The AfD’s projected strong showing on Sunday amounted to the latest in a string of political gains, including a second-place finish in June’s vote for the European Parliament. Advertisement “We are the number one people’s party in Thuringia,” Björn Höcke, the AfD’s regional leader in Thuringia and a designated extremist by German’s domestic intelligence agency, told ARD. Asked how he planned to build a coalition and become state premier, Höcke said the “dumb firewall talk” had to stop, referring to the other parties’ refusal to work with the AfD. Initial forecasts suggest that the AfD could win more than one-third of seats, granting the party special rights of a “blocking minority,” which would allow it to veto certain decision such as the appointment of judges and amendments to the regional state constitution. Julia Reuschenbach, a political scientist at Berlin’s Free University, said the question people will be asking from outside is, “Is it really possible that in the country of National Socialism, where the Holocaust took place, that a right-wing extremist party or at least a right-wing extremist regional association can win an election again or become the strongest force?” While the AfD’s political power is limited without governing, the party’s strength in numbers will make the democratic process of coalition building — a standard practice in Germany’s state and federal government, which uses a proportional representation system — no easy feat for the other parties. The additional success of the far-left BSW, only founded in January, could reshape German politics, with the party having the potential to scoop up voters from across the political spectrum in next year’s national vote. Advertisement AfD, founded in 2013 on skepticism of the European Union and euro zone, has grown more radical in recent years — and found new success in the process. The first boost came in 2015, at the height of Europe’s Syrian migrant crisis, which helped the party win its first seats in Germany’s federal lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/01/germany-far-right-afd-elections/