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Success for right-wing populists – AfD wins elections for a top municipal office for the first time – News

25 June 2023

Ten years after it was founded, the right-wing populist AfD has won a top municipal office in Germany for the first time.
In the district of Sonneberg in Thuringia, her applicant Robert Stuhlmann won the district election on Sunday.
According to the provisional result, he received 52.8 percent of the votes in a runoff, according to the electoral office.

The incumbent District Administrator of the CDU, Jürgen Köpper, only got 47.2 percent, although he was supported by a party alliance. Stuhlmann started the race as a favorite because of his high result in the first round.

A district administrator is the head of the district administration. Above all, he has to implement the decisions of the district council, but also those of the state parliament and the federal parliament. He can also clarify regional issues, such as day-care center care or the renovation of buildings and roads.

AfD currently in the survey high

Thuringia’s interior minister and SPD chairman Georg Maier described the election result as an “alarm signal for all democratic forces”. Now it’s time to “put aside party political interests and defend democracy together”. Politics and democracy are the competition for the best ideas and not for the greatest indignation, explained the SPD politician.

The Central Council of Jews is deeply shaken by the electoral success of the AfD. “To put it bluntly: Not every AfD voter has an extreme right-wing attitude,” said Central Council President Josef Schuster, according to the “Jewish General”. “But the party whose candidate you chose is right-wing extremist, according to the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution.” The fact that so many people agree with this worries him deeply, said Schuster.

The local elections in the district on the border with Bavaria had attracted nationwide attention. The AfD is currently on the rise in polls, especially in the eastern German states. In Thuringia, the party with state leader Björn Höcke is classified and observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a proven right-wing extremist.

Left, SPD, Greens and FDP in Thuringia had campaigned for a high turnout and support for the CDU candidate. Voter turnout was now 59.6 percent – in the first round two weeks ago it was 49.1 percent. The district in the Thuringian Forest with 57,000 inhabitants and around 48,000 eligible voters is one of the smallest in Germany.

Höcke announces “political earthquake” in the East

Thuringia’s AfD boss Björn Höcke sees Stuhlmann’s election victory as the prelude to more success in local and state elections. Höcke said at the AfD election party on Sunday that a “political lightning” emanated from Sonneberg. You want to take this momentum with you for the upcoming district elections. “And then we prepare for the state elections in the east, where we can really create a political earthquake.”

Legend:

Höcke (left) is happy with the chair man (middle) and the AfD national chairman Tino Chrupalla (right) about the success.

Keystone/Martin Schutt

Stuhlmann and the AfD fought the election campaign primarily with federal issues such as the controversial heating law, high inflation or increased refugee numbers. In the region, which is rural and conservative, there was talk of a vote on federal policy, with which many people are currently dissatisfied. Stuhlmann is 50 years old, a lawyer and currently a member of the AfD state parliament in Erfurt. He comes from the town of Sonneberg.