It is a new local victory which confirms the progress of this anti-EU and anti-immigration formation. The far-right German party AfD won its first town hall in a medium-sized town on Sunday, December 17, in Pirna, in the east of the country.
According to the results announced early in the evening, far-right candidate Tim Lochner won in the second round of voting in this town of 40,000 inhabitants in the state of Saxony, located not far from Dresden and the border with the Czech Republic. With 38.54%, this head of a carpentry company is ahead of his two rivals for the post of mayor, while the incumbent did not stand for re-election.
Discontent against the government coalition
This victory for the AfD reinforces the push of the party which is currently riding the discontent of a part of public opinion against the government coalition, made up of the social democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the ecologists and the Liberals, against inflation or climate protection measures. AfD co-leader Alice Weidel hailed a “historic result” for her party in a message on X (ex-twitter)
Credited at the national level with results of around 20% of voting intentions, the far-right party regularly surpasses Olaf Scholz’s social democratic party (SPD) in the polls, behind the conservatives of the CDU but clearly ahead of the Greens. and the liberals (FDP).
The popularity of the government coalition has just suffered a new blow with a severe call to order from the Constitutional Court which, in mid-November, rejected the government’s budgetary plans, leading to the emergency adoption of savings measures .
Very high scores
The AfD’s scores are even higher in Germany’s eastern regional states, which include Saxony. In three Länder of the former GDR, in Saxony but also in Thuringia and in Brandenburg, the region surrounding Berlin, regional elections will be held next year. The AfD is counting on these elections to achieve its progress.
At the end of June, the AfD won the leadership of a local authority in Thuringia. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), founded 10 years ago, already occupies 83 parliamentary seats in the Bundestag.