CDU candidate narrowly wins
AfD defeat in Thuringia: Experts see protest effect
January 29, 2024, 7:18 a.m
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Locally, the AfD has recently achieved some success in elections. In the Saale-Orla district in Thuringia, however, their candidate failed in the runoff election for the district office after winning the first round. Experts assume that the protests of the last few weeks play a role in this.
From the perspective of experts, the AfD defeat in a district election in Thuringia can also be attributed to the nationwide demonstrations of the past few days. The CDU election winner was able to win over almost all voters in the runoff election who had previously voted for the SPD or Left candidates, said Erfurt political scientist André Brodocz. “The fact that the right-wing extremist threat to democracy should be prevented together, as the nationwide demonstrations demanded as a basic democratic consensus, certainly motivated this group to vote for the CDU this time.”
The CDU candidate Christian Herrgott prevailed on Sunday in a runoff election in the Saale-Orla district in eastern Thuringia against AfD man Uwe Thrum. After the first round, Thrum was still well ahead of God, the SPD and Left candidates were far behind. After all voting districts were counted, CDU candidate Herrgott received 52.4 percent of the votes. Thrum achieved 47.6 percent. Thrum dominated the first round of voting with 45.7 percent of the vote. Good Lord came to 33.3 percent.
In Germany, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets against right-wing extremism and for democratic values in recent weeks. It is uncertain whether the demonstrations will have an impact on political decisions – for example in the three upcoming state elections in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia.
Political scientist Torsten Oppelland from the University of Jena said the impact of the demonstrations was difficult to quantify. There is no data available on this. However, the slightly higher voter turnout in the runoff election indicates a mobilization effect. “The wave of demonstrations may well have had a decisive impact.” Of the more than 66,000 eligible voters, around 69 percent took part in the runoff election. In the first round two weeks ago, voter turnout was around 66 percent, twice as high as in the last district election in 2018.