German state elections: what to make of AfD and BSW’s success?
The preliminary results for the eagerly awaited state elections in Saxony and Thuringia are in: the AfD has emerged the strongest party in Thuringia, where it received almost a third of the vote, with the conservative CDU coming second. In Saxony, the CDU won just ahead of the AfD. In both states, the offices for the protection of the constitution classify the AfD as a right-wing extremist organisation. The newly founded BSW was able to achieve double-digit results from a standing start. Europe’s press takes stock.
A political earthquake
La Repubblica is reminded of 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.”
This is not Weimar 2.0
The AfD’s success should not be overstated, The Times advises:
“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.”
The firewall is holding — for now
These elections were by no means just about local issues, Rzeczpospolita sums up:
“Eastern Germany is showing its dissatisfaction with federal policies on the war in Ukraine and on immigration. Because not regional issues but international politics were the main focus of campaigning in Thuringia and Saxony. ... So although the cordon sanitaire around the AfD will probably hold this time, it is already fraying dangerously. The dissatisfied east has not yet spoken its last word.”
Bizarre coalitions are not the solution
Lidové noviny does not view the current approach to the AfD as a long-term solution:
“The AfD wins elections but then fails to form viable majorities and governments, which is why bizarre coalitions are formed. This means the CDU is forever condemned to govern with left-wing parties or to remain in opposition. Wouldn’t it be better to ban the AfD through the courts or allow them to join the game? How long can the current situation continue?”
Extremism also present in western Germany
The election results are significant despite the low population in eastern Germany, writes G4Media.ro:
“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.”
No more optimism about progress
For Zeit Online, the election result shows a loss of confidence that
“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.”
