A far-right German political party that includes leaders who have spoken well of Nazis won a state election Sunday for the first time since World War II — and came in a close second in another race.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won about 32 to 33% of the vote in the east German state of Thuringia, flattening the center right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) group, which brought in about 24%, according to exit polls.
In neighboring Saxony, CDU came out ahead, although barely, with 31.7% of the vote, while AfD won between 30.6% and 31.4%.
“An openly right-wing extremist party has become the strongest force in a state parliament for the first time since 1949, and that causes many people very deep concern and fear,” said Omid Nouripour, a leader of the Greens, one of the national governing parties.
AfD — which has had leaders sanctioned for speaking well of Nazis — ran on a pro-Russia and anti-immigration platform in Germany’s formerly communist east.
Its leaders rallied support speaking in favor of Russia’s war on Ukraine, focusing on slow economic growth in Germany, denying climate change and latching on to a recent terror-linked knifing to denounce migration.
AfD’s national leader, Alice Weidel, directly blamed CDU leaders in Saxony for that stabbing, saying it was their policy of “uncontrolled mass immigration” which left three dead and several others injured at a music festival in Solingen.
“This is a historic success for us,” Weidel said of Sunday’s victory.
CDU’s national general secretary, Carsten Linneman, said that despite AfD’s win, his party would refuse to work with the far-right.
“Voters in both states knew that we wouldn’t form a coalition with AfD, and it will stay that way — we are very, very clear on this,” Linnemann said.
Weidel denounced the stance as “pure ignorance,” saying “voters want AfD to participate in a government.”
Numerous AfD leaders have faced repercussions for their apparent support of Nazism.
Maximilian Krah, a member of the European Parliament, was forced to stop campaigning for the AfD in May after he told an Italian newspaper that the Nazi SS were “not all criminals.”
And Björn Höcke, a party leader in Thuringia, was fined twice this year in German court by using a Nazi-era slogan – “Everything for Germany” — during at least two AfD events.
With Post wires
