Robert Stuhlmann won the district election in Sonneberg. This is the first time that the AfD has a district administrator in Germany. In the run-off, Jürgen Köpper from the CDU ran against Stuhlmann.
AfD election party in Sonneberg: Thuringia’s state chairman Björn Höcke (from left) with the election winner Robert Stuhlmann and the federal chairman Tino Chrupalla (all AfD).
At the ballot for optional of the new governor in the district of Sonneberg, Robert Stuhlmann from the AfD won. According to the preliminary election results, Stuhlmann came to 52.8 percent and CDU candidate Köpper to 47.2 percent. According to the preliminary election result, the member of the state parliament, Stuhlmann, is the first AfD district administrator in Germany.
According to the State Statistical Office, voter turnout was 59.6 percent according to the current count. There were 367 invalid votes. In the first round, turnout was 49.1 percent – just under every second eligible voter had cast their vote.
Sieger Stuhlmann announced on Sunday evening that he would resign from his seat in the state parliament. “I have limited hours,” he said. In a first television statement, he also said that the district of Sonneberg was making history, that the AfD had now arrived as a people’s party in the municipal sector in Thuringia and also in the Federal Republic of Germany. Stuhlmann asked all factions in the Sonneberg district council to work together.
Loser Köpper described the outcome of the election as “disappointing” and spoke of a “bad day for the district of Sonneberg and Thuringia”. “Despite the highly committed work of countless election workers, the Sonnebergers decided differently today,” he said.
Goldisthal as AfD stronghold
According to the provisional election result in Goldisthal, the AfD member of parliament Stuhlmann got the largest share of the vote with 61 percent. But also in Steinach, Stuhlmann clearly won with 59.2 percent. CDU candidate Köpper was only able to get a majority in Lauscha with 50.7 percent. It was particularly tight in the municipality of Föritztal, where Stuhlmann got 50.2 percent and Köpper 49.8 of the votes. The results in all Municipalities of the district of Sonneberg can be seen here.
48,000 people in the district of Sonneberg called to vote
The polling stations in district of Sonneberg were closed at 6 p.m. on Sunday. More than 48,000 eligible voters were called upon to decide on the new district administrator.
The run-off election had become necessary because no candidate had achieved an absolute majority in the first ballot. With 47 percent, AfD candidate Robert Stuhlmann, who also sits in the Thuringian state parliament, just missed the mark. His opponent on Sunday was the incumbent District Administrator Jürgen Köpper from the CDU. He had come to almost 36 percent two weeks ago.
The election is in focus nationwide because Sonneberg could become the first district in Germany with an AfD district administrator. SPD, Greens and Left had called on their supporters to to elect the CDU candidate.
The Thuringian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified the AfD state association with its chairman Björn Höcke as a secured right-wing extremist effort and object of observation. With this classification, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution can use the entire arsenal of intelligence tools, such as informants, against the party.
MDR (rom/mm)