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In Bitterfeld-Wolfen, the AfD is hoping to elect its first-ever mayor. The CDU incumbent counters. But the party has long been accepted in the city.
The woman on the Bitterfeld market square looks at her mayor somewhat perplexed. “What else is going to happen?” she calls out. How long should we continue to complain? Armin Schenk, the mayor, agrees: “We have achieved a lot with little money.”
Not ten meters away from Schenk on this Friday morning are those who are gathering discontent here in Bitterfeld-Wolfen: the AfD. Schenk, a CDU politician, and the AfD candidate Henning Dornack are running in the runoff election for the town hall here on Sunday. Dornack got 33.8 percent of the vote in the first round, Schenk only got 29 percent. Dornack’s election would be anything but a sign of satisfaction.
Incumbent struggles with CDU image
In such a mood, one could expect great support from one’s own party. But Schenk is almost alone here. The CDU in the city council is divided, the city association is hopelessly divided. Shortly before the first round of voting, two local mayors left the party.
Instead, two older men are now supporting Schenk. “If Henning Dornack is elected, there will no longer be a blue sky over Bitterfeld from Monday,” says one of the two. The AfD talks people drunk, says the other. “We have to get Bitterfeld out of the negative reporting.”
Federal politicians comment on the election. Many journalists are traveling in Bitterfeld-Wolfen these days. Schenk calls the interest “understandable.” He once again lists the successes of his first term in office: Debts have fallen from 80 million euros to 15 million euros. The local technology and chemical park are driving up trade tax revenue, also because the solar industry is making a second attempt in the former “Solar Valley” in the Thalheim district.
Twin city with many upheavals
Schenk appears agile. He was an engineer in the Wolfen film factory in the GDR. With the fall of the Wall, he went into economic development. He became mayor seven years ago.
Some in the city consider him a one-man show that primarily sells itself. With Schenk, local politics has been “put in the balance,” says the mayor of Wolfen, André Krillwitz, himself third in the first round of voting. The city council no longer trusts Schenk. There was a dispute about the renovation of the Bitterfeld city center ring, about the closure of the Wolfen water park, and about the participation of a total of eight localities.
Bitterfeld-Wolfen is a twin city, an “administrative construct”, as some say. Wolfen was shaped by the chemical industry, Bitterfeld by coal mining. With the change, environmental pollution ended, but so did opencast mining. The chemistry remained. At the same time, what was once the dirtiest city in Europe became the green, down-to-earth Bitterfeld-Wolfen of today. However, the population of around 38,000 was twice as high at the end of the GDR.
The city is a magnifying glass for structural changes. In such “industrial regions affected by transformation” the AfD is stronger throughout Germany than anywhere else. This was the result of a study by the Institute for Economics. And the more upheavals there are, the higher the AfD values are.
AfD: “This time it’s our turn”
In the 2016 state election, the AfD won almost 32 percent of the second votes in the Bitterfeld constituency – more than anywhere else. Five years later, AfD man Kay-Uwe Ziegler won the direct mandate in the federal election. In neighboring Raguhn-Jeßnitz, Germany’s first full-time AfD mayor was elected in July.
Kay-Uwe Ziegler is at the market square this Friday. He was the spokesman for the Corona protests, for which the AfD was often able to gather over a thousand people here. “This time it’s our turn,” he says. “That tells me the mood outside our bubble.” Just seven years ago he was a candidate for mayor himself, but only came third. Now it should work with a new candidate.
“I polarize,” says Ziegler, who also sits on the city council and district council. Henning Dornack, on the other hand, is not political. “He talks to people on the city council that I would never talk to.”
“We don’t have a firewall here”
Henning Dornack has meanwhile moved to another place in the city center. He says people are worried about energy prices and the “development with migrants.” But these are certainly things “that cannot be solved here in the city.” Above all, he wants to make administration more efficient and “solve the investment backlog”.
Dornack is a retired police officer. He wears a crew cut and a small pair of gold handcuffs on his lapel. “Everyone in the city council is already working together,” says Dornack. “We don’t have a firewall here.” Three years ago he was elected deputy head of the city council in a secret ballot.
Isn’t Dornack political, just like Ziegler said? He says: “I fully support the AfD’s program.” On the beer benches behind him, dozens of people are eating bratwurst and shortbread cookies. Children jump over a bouncy castle that has been set up.
Opencast mining became a lake of scandal
Torsten Weiser stands on the other side of the street and says: “There’s always a folk festival with the AfD.” The social democrat and 36-year-old tax specialist leads the city council faction of the SPD, Greens and FDP. He takes you to Goitzsche, a hot topic in Bitterfeld.
The Bitterfeld opencast mine was flooded and renovated for 300 million euros. The lake is a popular excursion destination and the properties are in the best residential location. However, the city had none of this: the municipal operating company is said to have sold many of the areas at ridiculous prices.
The beneficiaries are said to include several local politicians; a CDU man was both a buyer and a member of the supervisory board. He denies conflicts of interest, but the alleged scandal has been reopened by the city council since the end of 2022.
After an initial examination of documents, Weiser and several city council colleagues came to the conclusion: That couldn’t have been legal. There was a joint press release – also with the AfD. There are now thousands of pages of files at a law firm.
The SPD also sometimes agrees with the AfD
It wasn’t the first time for Weiser that he worked with the AfD. His group only has six MPs, three of whom are in the SPD. “What do you want to cover with three men alone?” says Weiser. There is nothing left but to work across factions – including with the AfD. The CDU, on the other hand, is divided. Many other city councilors would often be conspicuous by their absence. In this way, majorities continually regrouped
Today’s mayor Schenk did not enrich himself from the Goitzsche. This is clear even for the AfD. Nevertheless, the scandal rubs off on him because the business is primarily blamed on the CDU.
And with Goitzsche, the problems continue for Weiser. Bitterfeld-Wolfen is not exploiting its potential. Other cities in the area would benefit far more from the proximity to Berlin and Leipzig. “We market ourselves too poorly,” says Weiser. Under Schenk, a lot is planned and not enough is implemented.
Alliance against AfD
On Saturday, Weiser and his SPD will still take part in a “Festival for Democracy” in Bitterfeld. A local alliance is mobilizing against the election of the AfD candidate – and for the ailing incumbent. There is a national petition. Saxony-Anhalt’s CDU Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff also appeals to the “civic responsibility” of the people of Bitterfeld-Wolfen.
All sides expect a close election result on Sunday. And if Henning Dornack wins? Torsten Weiser hesitates, then says it: “Then the world won’t end.” Journalists would come to Bitterfeld-Wolfen for a few more weeks. After that there would be silence again until the next election.