The AfD has conquered a top municipal office for the first time in Sonneberg, Thuringia. Experts see this as a turning point. It is becoming increasingly difficult to engage in politics against the right-wing populists or to win elections against them in East Germany.
After the election victory of the AfD in the Thuringian district of Sonneberg, experts expect further successes for the right-wing populist party in East Germany. “If there isn’t a dramatic change in mood, next year’s state and local elections could be a triumph for the AfD,” Dresden political scientist Hans Vorländer told the dpa news agency.
The director of the Center for Constitutional and Democracy Research at the TU Dresden said that the AfD would not govern at state level for lack of partners. However, large alliances between the other parties would be necessary in order to still get government majorities. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to do politics against the AfD or to win elections against the AfD.”
“Fertile soil for the AfD”
In the district of Sonneberg, the AfD candidate Robert Stuhlmann won the runoff election for the office of district administrator on Sunday. It is the first municipal top office for the right-wing party nationwide. The support of the Left, SPD, Greens and FDP for the CDU opposition candidate Jürgen Köpper was not enough to prevent the AfD from succeeding. Next year there will be state and local elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg as well as local elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Political scientist Vorländer spoke of a mixture of different motives among the voters. The AfD has been deeply rooted in many regions of East Germany for years and in some cases has a potential of more than 30 percent. Many people have conservative, right-wing populist, right-wing national or even ethnic attitudes. At the moment there is dissatisfaction with the federal government. “This is fertile ground for the AfD,” said Vorländer.
“Confirmation for right-wing extremists radicalization course”
According to the Magdeburg extremism researcher Matthias Quent, Stuhlmann’s election victory has “a symbolic value of nationwide importance,” as he told the editorial network Germany (RND). “The real design options of a district administrator in a district with 54,000 inhabitants are limited, but this election victory gives the AfD a central position for attacking state and federal politics.”
In addition, the outcome of the election was a confirmation of the “extreme right radicalization course” of AfD country chief Björn Höcke. The scientist even considers it possible that the AfD electoral success could be the starting point for “normalizing and legitimizing cooperation between AfD and CDU”.
“Alert signal for democracy”
As usual, the committees of the Bundestag parties are meeting today, where the election in Sonneberg could become an issue. Green party leader Ricarda Lang had taken the result as a warning to all democratic forces. AfD candidate Stuhlmann had primarily campaigned against the policy of the traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP in the federal government – with energy and refugee policy as the focus.
The Thuringian SPD state chairman Georg Maier also blamed unstable political conditions in the federal state for the outcome of the district election. There is not enough progress on many issues that concern people because the red-red-green minority government is dependent on the approval of the CDU. “We’re really going in circles sometimes,” said Maier.
The success of Robert Stuhlmann is an alarm signal for democracy, said Left Co-Chairman Martin Schirdewan in common morning magazine from ARD and ZDF. The left-wing politician cited dissatisfaction with the federal government and the appropriation of right-wing populist narratives by the Union parties and the FDP as the reason for the first assumption of a top municipal office by the AfD.
The AfD has been flying high for weeks
The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, sees the first election of an AfD politician to a district administrator as a “dam burst”. The democratic political forces in this country should not simply accept this, Schuster told the RND.
The AfD has also been flying high in nationwide surveys for weeks and is usually the second strongest force behind the Union. All other parties rule out a coalition with the party classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist.