He had just won his first canton and had just won a second victory. The far-right German party took a new step in its electoral progress on Sunday evening, electing its first full-time mayor of a municipality.
Hannes Loth, 42, was elected for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party at the head of Raguhn-Jessnitz, a town of some 9,000 inhabitants in the Saxony-Anhalt region in the east of the country, according to figures published on the municipality’s Facebook page. With 51.13%, this elected representative of the regional parliament of Saxony-Anhalt beat a candidate without a label.
The far right wins a canton
Just a week ago, the far-right party won the presidency of a territorial community in Germany bringing together several municipalities, the equivalent of a French canton: that of Sonneberg, in the Thuringia region, also in the East of the country.
“After the first canton, we now have the AfD’s first full-time mayor,” party official Christian Blex said on social media.
A small number of German villages have already had AfD mayors in the past, but this was a voluntary role, these elected officials having another job at the same time. Similarly, a town in the south-west of the country of 12,000 inhabitants, Burladingen, was led between 2018 and 2020 by an elected AfD, but the latter had not been elected under the colors of the party, he had joined it during term.
The election comes in a context of a strong surge in the polls of this anti-migrant, eurosceptic movement defending pro-Russian positions, which was created 10 years ago. According to an opinion poll by the Insa institute published on Sunday by the Sunday edition of the daily Bild, the AfD is ahead at the national level with 20% of the voting intentions of the Social Democratic Party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (19%).
In the last legislative elections of 2021, the far-right party recorded a score less than half, with 10.3% of the vote. The AfD is particularly established in the east of the country, which feels left behind.
The discontent of the population
The party has been surfing for several months on the discontent of part of the public, fueled by inflation or even the ecological transition that the government is trying to put in place, under the impetus of the Greens, a member of the ruling coalition. .
The president of the Federal Agency for Civic Education, responsible for education programs in Germany, warned this weekend against the risk of reducing the progress of the AfD “to a simple protest movement”.
“The voters want this party, that’s where the situation is serious,” said Thomas Krüger, to the regional press group RND.
“Certain positions have taken root in a part of society, which are not reconcilable with democratic principles and which are unacceptable,” he added.