And two. A week after conquering a Landkreis (district) for the first time, that of Sonneberg in Thuringia, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won its first town hall. On Sunday July 2, its candidate, Hannes Loth, won with 51% of the vote against his opponent, Nils Naumann (without label), in Raguhn-Jessnitz, a town of 9,000 inhabitants located in Saxony-Anhalt, between Berlin and Leipzig.
“Hannes Loth becomes the AfD’s first mayor. New normal: we are a party that represents the people [Volkspartei]. Step by step, we are changing things for the better and implementing our policy in the interest of the citizens”tweeted Tino Chrupalla, the president of the AfD, after the victory of the candidate of his party, a 42-year-old farmer, municipal councilor of Raguhn-Jessnitz and regional deputy of Thuringia since 2016.
These two back-to-back victories confirm the entrenchment of the far right in the east of the country, the Landkreis of Sonneberg and the municipality of Raguhn-Jessnitz being in two Länder of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). In Thuringia, the AfD could come out on top in the next regional elections, scheduled for autumn 2024: in the last poll published, dating from the end of April, the party is credited with 28% of the vote, far ahead of the left-wing formation Die Linke (22%), which leads the regional executive, and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), given 21%.
In Saxony-Anhalt, where the regional assembly will be renewed in the summer of 2026, the far-right party could also score excellently. If the CDU, which currently governs the region, is at the top of the voting intentions (31%), the AfD is close behind (29%). In the last election, in 2021, the CDU won with 37%, 16 points ahead of the AfD.
A recent study by the University of Leipzig provides some explanations for the success of the extreme right in eastern Germany. Made public on June 28, it was carried out on a representative sample of 3,546 people living in the five Länder of the former GDR and in the former East Berlin. We learn in particular this: 70% of the people questioned think that “strangers come [en Allemagne] only to take advantage of social assistance” ; 30% believe that, “under certain circumstances, a dictatorship may be the best regime in the interest of the nation” ; 33% are of the opinion that “Germany needs a guide [Führer] in order to lead it with a strong hand for the good of all” ; 29% agree that “Jews, more than others, use malicious schemes to get what they want” ; and 21% consider that“Hitler would be seen as a great statesman if it hadn’t been for the extermination of the Jews”.
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