Germany’s anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, AfD, is celebrating a “historic success”, with a big victory for the far-right party in the eastern state of Thuringia.
The AfD won almost a third of the vote, nine points ahead of the Christian Democratic Union, CDU, and far in front of Germany’s three governing parties.
The result gives the far right its first win in a state parliament election since World War Two, although it has little hope of forming a government in Thuringia because other parties are unlikely to work with it.
The AfD came a close second in Sunday’s other big state election, in the more populous neighbouring state of Saxony.
Results there gave the CDU 31.9% of the vote, just ahead of the AfD, again far ahead of the three parties running the national government – the Social Democrats, Greens and liberal FDP.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the results were “bitter” and called on other mainstream parties to form state governments without the far right. “The AfD is damaging Germany. It is weakening the economy, dividing society and ruining our country’s reputation,” he noted in a statement to Reuters.
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The AfD’s top candidate in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, who is a highly controversial figure in Germany, hailed a “historic victory” and spoke of his great pride. He failed to win a direct mandate for the state parliament, but secured a seat because he was top of his party list.
Mr Höcke’s party has been designated as right-wing extremist and he has been fined for using a Nazi slogan, although the former history teacher denies knowingly doing so.
One of Germany’s best-known Holocaust survivors, Charlotte Knobloch, pointed out that the election had taken place 85 years to the day since the outbreak of World War Two. The result had left the country in danger of becoming “more unstable, colder and poorer, less safe and less worth living in”, she said.
With federal elections only a year away, the AfD is second in national opinion polls. Co-leader Alice Weidel said the result was a “requiem” for the three parties running Germany and it was clear that voters in both eastern states wanted her party in government.
“Without us a stable government is no longer possible at all,” she said.
That message was repeated by Björn Höcke, who suggested there were plenty of CDU voters who would be happy if they worked together.
Without the support of other parties, the AfD cannot govern in Thuringia, and the CDU has made clear it will not consider ruling with the far right.
Mathematically, the conservatives will need support from parties on the left to form a majority.
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