German Chancellor Olaf Scholz yesterday urged parties to avoid collaborating with the far right, after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) made record gains in two regional polls and his own coalition suffered a heavy defeat a year before a general election.
In the former East German state of Thuringia, the anti-immigrant, anti-Islam AfD became the first far-right party to win a regional election since World War II, taking about 33 percent of the vote on Sunday. The AfD was headed for a close second place in Saxony.
The Bild daily described the outcome as “a political earthquake.”
Photo: Reuters
Scholz, whose deeply unpopular three-party coalition received a slapdown in both states, called the results “bitter” and “worrying.”
“The AfD is damaging Germany. It is weakening the economy, dividing society and ruining our country’s reputation,” he said.
“All democratic parties are now called upon to form stable governments without right-wing extremists,” he said in a message on Facebook.
Coalition governments are the norm in Germany at federal and state level, and mainstream parties have always ruled out collaboration with the far right.
However, AfD coleader Alice Weidel said she believed the “undemocratic firewall” was untenable given the party’s electoral success, while fellow leader, Tino Chrupalla, said that there would be “no politics without the AfD.”
The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the only centrist party to perform strongly on Sunday, was quick to dismiss the idea of teaming up with the AfD.
“Voters know that we do not form coalitions with the AfD,” CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann said.
The CDU only narrowly edged out the AfD with 32 percent of the vote in Saxony, and came second in Thuringia.
The conservatives still hold hopes of leading the next government in Thuringia, with their lead candidate, Mario Voigt, appealing for a “reasonable government” in a coalition led by the CDU.
The AfD’s controversial local leader, Bjoern Hoecke, said that his party was the “people’s party in Thuringia.”
“We need change and change will only come with the AfD,” he said, hailing the “historic result.”
Hoecke has often caused outrage with his outspoken statements and was fined twice this year for deliberately using a banned Nazi slogan.
Sahra Wagenknecht, who heads the far-left BSW, said her party “cannot work together” with Hoecke and has long ruled out a coalition with the AfD.
BSW, formed earlier this year as a breakaway from the ex-communist Linke party, secured vote shares in the teens in both regional polls and is seen as a key building block in any coalition.
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