Elections in Saxony and Thuringia
It is the first time that a far-right force would win a state election in democratic Germany
BarcelonaPolls at the ballot box countries Germans in Saxony and Thuringia do not contradict the polls and confirm what could be the first victory of the far right in a German regional election since the Second World War.
The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) would now win in Thuringia with 33.5% of the support. In this region, this party is led by the controversial historian Björn Höcke, who has been convicted twice for using Nazi slogans in public. Behind the AfD are the Christian Democrats of the CDU, who would get 24.5% of the vote. In third place comes the surprise of the party of the historical deputy of the post-communist party Die Linke, Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), who obtained 14.5% of the votes, 3 points more than her former formation (11.5%), which crashes and falls to fourth place despite having won the elections five years ago. The well-known leader of Die Linke in the region, Bodo Ramelow, had led a minority government coalition with the Greens and the SPD Social Democrats until now. Thuringia was the only German region where a left-wing party ruled.
The SPD, the party of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, would save the furniture and manage to enter the state parliament, with 6.5% of the support. They would be without representation, however, the two parties that form the government coalition with Scholz in Berlin: the Greens (Green) and the liberals of the FPD.
In Saxony, the projections do not fail either and the CDU would win (32%) followed very closely by the extreme right (31.5%). In this state, BSW (11.5%) would also surpass all the parties that are part of Scholz’s coalition. The SPD would get 7.5% of the support, 2 points above the Greens, who would narrowly enter the Saxon parliament. Die Linke, with 4.5% of the vote, and the liberals (1%) would be left out of the chamber. Until now, the region was governed by Michael Kretschmer of the CDU, with the support of the Greens and the SPD.
Both in Thuringia and Saxony, all parties have pledged to respect a sanitary cordon towards the extreme right, what in Germany is called firewall (firewall). However, if the forecasts are confirmed, the extreme right can be a stone in the shoe in both parliaments, with the ability to block laws or suspend subsidies, because, at the moment, it exceeds 30% of the votes.
Polls at the ballot box also confirm Sahra Wagenknecht’s entrance through the big door into German politics. The former deputy of Die Linke, recognized in Germany for her television interventions, has presented herself with her own party in both states. His speech mixes left-wing positions on economic matters – his political tradition is orthodox communism – with xenophobic features regarding the migration discourse. This double standard has allowed him to agglutinate the disaffected vote with the traditional left. Wagenknecht also advocates cutting military aid to Ukraine and reimporting Russian fuel.
The elections took place in a climate marked by last Friday’s terrorist attack in Solingen, where three people were stabbed while attending a concert at a music festival. In addition, in the last few hours, there have been demonstrations against the extreme right in various places in both states and more are expected this evening in places such as Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia.
These results would be a turning point for Germany as a whole. It would be a hard blow for Olaf Scholz, who in June’s European elections already saw his party suffer its worst-ever results in a national election. Although Scholz hardly reacted then, this second down low could change things.
Source: www.ara.cat