AfD mayor
Free voters attack the CDU after the mayoral election in Pirna
Election winner Tim Lochner (l) and the Saxon AfD leader Jörg Urban are happy. photo
© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa
An AfD candidate becomes mayor of a German city for the first time. The voters’ vote met with criticism. Meanwhile, the losers blame each other.
“We notice the people in our cities who are tired of crises and no longer want or can follow some political discussions. Our attention must be focused on them. It is they who we have to take with us in the many changes we are facing,” said Lewe. This will not work with parties that represent extremist positions. “Extremist parties aim to divide society and stir up fear and uncertainty.”
Tim Lochner was the first AfD candidate to win a mayoral election in Germany on Sunday. In the second round of voting, the 53-year-old defeated the CDU candidate Kathrin Dollinger-Knuth and the independent Ralf Thiele, who entered the race for the Free Voters. Lochner himself is also non-party and, by his own admission, does not want to join the AfD. The AfD regional association in Saxony was recently classified by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a confirmed right-wing extremist effort.
Left party leader sees a “black day”
Saxony’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) made the following statement on the short message service must be respected. Likewise the decision of the competitors to run again in the second round…”
The left-wing parliamentary group leader in the Saxon state parliament, Rico Gebhardt, saw a “black day” on election evening, and not just for the city of Pirna. “It doesn’t matter to voters whether a party is classified as right-wing extremist, they consciously vote for it anyway,” he wrote on X.
The International Auschwitz Committee recalled the history of Pirna as a place of euthanasia crimes. In the Pirna-Sonnenstein nursing home, the National Socialists murdered around 13,720 people, mostly mentally ill and mentally handicapped, in 1940 and 1941. “In addition, this election is a bitter signal to all representatives of the democratic parties about what will happen if they cannot agree on a common approach and leave the field to the AfD and its voters,” explained Vice President Christoph Heubner .
The Free Voters attacked the CDU on Monday. The CDU was unable to get behind the Free Voters candidate who came second after the first round of voting, said Thomas Weidinger, state leader of the Free Voters in Saxony. “Instead, with the CDU candidate running again, they consciously accepted that they would play the stirrup holder for the AfD.”
The defeated CDU candidate Dollinger-Knuth saw things differently on election evening. “Although we have gathered almost all forces behind our political offer, the voters have decided otherwise. Unfortunately, the Free Voters have decided to carry on alone, thereby paving the way for AfD success,” she said. Both have to be accepted.