Germany: An anti-immigration party causes a political earthquake by winning local elections

For the first time in Germany, an AfD politician was elected to the position of district leader. The anti-immigration, anti-Islam party had previously been declared a far-right organization by the country’s intelligence agency.

Sunday’s election victory for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the district of Sonneberg in the eastern state of Thuringia was decisive.

The party’s candidate, Robert Sesselmann, won 52.8% of the vote, becoming the first AfD politician to head a government in Germany – albeit a small province.

The local government representative does not wield much power, however, and AfD leaders are now setting their sights on much larger political goals, also hoping to build on the highest level of support the party has enjoyed in its ten-year history.

According to polls, about 19% to 20% of eligible voters said they would vote for the far-right party. Riding this wave of popularity, the AfD says it plans to run a candidate for chancellor in the 2025 federal election.

Observers believe the party also has a realistic chance of becoming the strongest political force in three eastern German states, which will hold regional elections next year.

The AfD campaigns for a “normal” Germany, in opposition to a centre-left government | Photo: Revierfoto / dpa / picture alliance

AfD leader Tino Shrubala hailed this small election success as “just the beginning!”

The party also received public support from notorious German neo-Nazi activist Michael Brock, who congratulated the AfD on his Telegram channel.

Supporters uninterested in the “extremists” label

Analysts say the AfD is exploiting concerns among German voters about recession, immigration and the impact of greening measures on the economy.

These concerns seem to have overshadowed several scandals within the AfD in recent years, including the mismanagement of party donations and the involvement of former AfD MP Birgitte Malczak-Winkmann in an extremist plot to overthrow the government.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said this month that far-right extremism posed the biggest threat to democracy in Germany, and warned voters not to support the AfD.

Also read: Germany: How support for the right is rising along with immigration

AfD video from 2021 claims Europe and Germany will be flooded with 5 million refugees | Source: Twitter screenshot of AfD MP Rüdiger Lucassen FD success ‘historic low’

The election result over the weekend provoked strong reactions from many quarters in Germany. The head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, expressed deep shock at the result.

“This is a turning point that the democratic political forces in this country simply cannot accept,” he told German media network RND.

Meanwhile, Germany’s national anti-discrimination commissioner, Ferda Atamann, called Sunday’s vote “a historic low for the country”, adding that many people were worried and afraid for their future in Germany.

The current leader of the Thuringian state, Bodo Ramelow of the Left party, said the success of the AfD showed that far-right populism as already seen in the US, France and elsewhere in Europe was now taking hold in Germany.

Before the election, German Interior Minister Nancy Weser blamed the AfD for stoking anti-immigrant attitudes that had led to an increase in attacks on immigrants and refugees – a claim the party denied.

Also read: ‘People of Deutschland’: Everyday racism in Germany

extreme language

The AfD was originally formed as an anti-EU party, however, it grew in popularity after 2015, and entered the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany’s parliament, in 2017. One of the party’s most important policies is its staunch opposition to immigration.

Over the years, senior party members have made a number of extreme racist and xenophobic statements.

In 2016, the party’s then co-chair, Frauke Petry, told a regional newspaper that the police should “use firearms if necessary” in order to “prevent illegal border crossing”, which caused a scandal.

Beatrix von Storch, AfD member of the European Parliament, made similarly inflammatory remarks, saying that “people who don’t accept to stop at our borders are attackers”, adding that Germany must defend itself against these “attackers” – even if It means shooting women and children.

Christian Luth, a former AfD press officer, expressed a more extreme position, saying that immigrants could be shot – or gassed.

With epd, Reuters, AP

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