Germany’s far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), won big on Sunday, securing victory in the eastern state of Thuringia in a regional election.
The victory gives the far right its first win in a state parliament election since World War Two.
The AfD also came a close second in Sunday’s other big state election, in the neighbouring state of Saxony.
The AfD is seen as a right-wing extremist party in both Thuringia and Saxony.
As the far right continues to rise across Europe we look at how European media has reacted to the election win.
KEY FACTS
- German far right election victory in east
- Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won in eastern state of Thuringia
- AfD secured second place in Sunday’s other big state election, in the neighbouring state of Saxony
- First time since WW2 the far right has won a state parliament election
- AfD is unlikely to form a government as major parties wont cooperate
Left wing The Independent reports on east and west Germany
“the strength of AfD in the former East have generated much – often condescending – debate among German commentators about whether Ossies and Wessis would ever really see eye to eye, and even whether two Germanies might actually be moving further apart.“Such discussions, which presuppose some special malaise in the former east, and barely disguise a sense that former East German voters are somehow inferior in not having fully adapted to their “new” reality, tend to leave out some big factors that have little to do with the “East German” experience, and quite a lot to do with demography in the eastern states, and with simple geography.”
The Guardian has a similar take to the Independent on the election results
For years, the assumption in Germany has been that once the eastern states had “caught up” with the rest of the country economically, their political outlook would align. According to such reasoning, the rise of the AfD is cast as a protest vote against continued disparities in income, employment and living standards.
“But economics and demographics only go so far to explain the outcome of Sunday’s votes. The population of the east is older than that in the west, but it is no longer demographically “bleeding out” as it was during the last years of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the two decades that followed.”
Liberal German media said:
“The established parties – from the CDU to the Greens – are still capable of solving the problems that matter to most to voters in Saxony and Thuringia, above all migration. … But perhaps the biggest problem is that there is no longer confidence in the version of Germany that seemed to exist for many decades – a very proud, innovative, progressive country. The trains no longer run, the energy transition is a moderate disaster, steel companies are pulling back. It is no longer enough to just talk about this. This election result proves that. There is no more optimism about progress.”
Romanian media site says there is a threat far right will spread:
“In both states, the parties in the traffic-light coalition achieved very weak results. … In the meantime, the federal CDU leader, Friedrich Merz, is under pressure from the right wing of his party to intensify his anti-immigration rhetoric, which appears to have helped the AfD – following the terror attack in Solingen. … Together, the three states of Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg [where elections will be held on 22 September] account for just ten percent of the nation’s population and have characteristics of the former communist East, however, the rise of the extremist AfD and Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) parties is no longer an isolated phenomenon, rather there is a threat that this will spread to the West of the country.”
The more Conservative British newspaper The Times says mainstream parties need to threat this situation with seriousness:
“Yes, Thuringia was where the Nazis got their first electoral break at regional level. Yes, if the AfD wins a blocking minority of one third of the seats in the state parliament it will be in a position to cause a certain amount of mischief. And yes, it may sporadically work together with the BSW or the CDU in Thuringia. Yet it will remain frozen out of government for as long as the taboos continue to hold. The challenge for the mainstream parties is to stop leaning on tired Nazi analogies as a crutch and to treat this warning with the seriousness it deserves.”
Italy’s Repubblica looks back in history to 1924:
“This is an earthquake that will change history. For the first time since the end of the war, a far-right party has won a state election in Germany. 90 years after Hitler’s seizure of power. And in Thuringia, a state which is notorious for having elected Nazis to the state parliament for the first time in 1924. Exactly a century ago. Björn Höcke, the leader of the AfD in Thuringia, is one of the undisputed winners of this vote, having received almost 33 percent. And the big losers are the three factious parties in the coalition government.”
