Election in the Oder-Spree district
Will the AfD get its first district administrator’s post?
05/14/2023, 07:19 am
In the Brandenburg district of Oder-Spree, the candidates from the SPD and AfD are in the runoff for the district office. The AfD, classified by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist, is the favorite in the race. Apparently not a problem for the CDU. She avoids positioning.
In the Brandenburg district of Oder-Spree, a politician from the right-wing populist AfD could be elected district administrator for the first time in Germany today. In the runoff, SPD candidate Frank Steffen and AfD candidate Rainer Galla compete against each other. The AfD candidate was ahead in the first ballot. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been monitoring the AfD Brandenburg since 2020 as a suspected right-wing extremist.
There is non-partisan support for SPD man Steffen: after the first ballot, the left called for votes for him in the runoff. The Greens also put a call for the SPD candidate on their election posters. The CDU district association has not yet positioned itself. “We call on the voters to use their democratic rights,” said CDU district manager Willy Hagemann. The Free Voters make no recommendation, but do not consider either candidate to be eligible.
A coalition of SPD, CDU and Greens governs the country under Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke. With Michael Stübgen, the CDU is the interior minister responsible for the protection of the constitution. It wasn’t until mid-April when the state constitutional protection report was presented statedthat right-wing extremists “continue to pose the greatest threat to our democracy”. The right-wing extremist suspected case ‘Alternative für Deutschland’ (AfD)” together with a magazine and an association “forms an anti-constitutional, political-media formation”. The AfD is the “heart of this network”.
AfD before electoral successes in the east
The SPD parliamentary group attributes a “national political dimension” to the election: “I am shocked again that the CDU does not clearly and unequivocally differentiate itself. Once again the firewall to the right is crumbling,” said Parliamentary Secretary Katja Mast.
AfD party leader Tino Chrupalla sees a “united front” against applicant Galla. “In the coming election year, it will be difficult in the east anyway to form coalitions that are viable for Germany without an alternative,” he said. “The municipal level is well suited to practicing the principle of cooperation.” In the coming year, new state parliaments will be elected in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia. Currently, the AfD is mostly ahead in polls.
In the first ballot of the district election on April 23, none of the then eight candidates got the required majority of votes. The AfD candidate Galla collected the most votes, ultimately gaining 24.8 percent. Steffen, who came second, received 22.5 percent. According to the district, about 152,500 eligible voters are called to vote. In the first ballot, turnout was 36.6 percent.
Whoever has more than half of the valid votes cast is elected – but this majority must also correspond to at least 15 percent of those entitled to vote. In many district elections in Brandenburg in recent years, candidates failed to meet this required minimum quorum. Then the district councils ultimately decide who will become the new district administrator.
The district of oder-Spree stretches from the outskirts of Berlin in the south-east to the Polish border. Larger cities are Fürstenwalde and Eisenhüttenstadt. The largest private employers are the steelworks in Eisenhüttenstadt and Tesla in Grünheide.