The Thuringian district of Sonneberg on the border with Bavaria will in future be governed by a district administrator with an AfD party book. A first for the right-wing party, which other parties see with horror.
Nationwide in the survey high and now also with a countable electoral success: Ten years after its foundation, the right-wing populist AfD has conquered a top municipal office in Germany for the first time. With 52.8 percent, her candidate Robert Stuhlmann won the district election in the Thuringian district of Sonneberg on Sunday against his CDU competitor Jürgen Köpper, who only got 47.2 percent.
“That was just the beginning,” wrote AfD boss Tino Chrupalla on Twitter. “We convince majorities with our politics for the interests of the citizens. In this way we will achieve a turn for the better for Germany.” Thuringia’s AfD head of state Björn Höcke said that a “political flash of lightning” emanated from Sonneberg. You want to take this momentum with you for the upcoming district elections and then prepare for the state elections, where you could create a “political earthquake” in the east. Next year there will be state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg.
The district of Sonneberg has 57,000 inhabitants
Neither Stuhlmann (50) nor Köpper (57) were present at the presentation of the election results in Sonneberg – they preferred to stay with their supporters. There was a celebration at the AfD, there were German flags on the tables, and blue balloons were hanging everywhere. Election winner Stuhlmann, as a future district administrator, also wants to speak to his political opponents, he announced at the AfD election party in Sonneberg. He sees the AfD “on the way to becoming a people’s party”. The defeated Köpper described the outcome of the election as “disappointing” in a statement and spoke of a bad day for the district of Sonneberg and for Thuringia.
In the district of Sonneberg, it was about a district administrator in a region with few people – the district in the Thuringian Forest directly on the border with Bavaria has just 57,000 inhabitants and 48,000 eligible voters. But the AfD made history according to its own reading. The result shows that majorities for the system-critical protest party are possible – and that in Thuringia, where the state association with its boss Höcke is classified and observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as proven right-wing extremists.
Left, SPD, Greens and FDP stood behind CDU candidates
Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) described the AfD election success as a signal of dissatisfaction. “I think we have to redefine the spirit of German unity, that we take the East Germans with us and don’t give the feeling that they’re being laughed at or just talked about,” said Ramelow on Sunday evening on ZDF. The Green Federal Chairwoman Ricarda Lang wrote on Twitter that the AfD is deliberately feeding fears. “She has no interest in the country doing well.”
Thuringia’s interior minister and SPD chairman Georg Maier described the election result as an “alarm signal for all democratic forces”. Thuringia’s CDU General Secretary Christian Herrgott said: “The election result makes it clear that we all have the task of finding solutions to this type of protest against Berlin.”
Left, SPD, Greens and FDP had all drummed for the opposing candidate Köpper. In the previous attempts by the AfD to hold top municipal offices in Schwerin and Brandenburg, that had still worked. But this time even this broad alliance was not enough to stop the AfD man.
AfD is in surveys nationwide at 18 to 20 percent
Apparently, the AfD, which used posters and personnel during the election campaign, was able to mobilize many of its supporters. Voter turnout rose to 59.6 percent from 49.1 percent in the first round.
In the first ballot two weeks ago, the 50-year-old Stuhlmann, currently a member of the state parliament and lawyer, got 46.7 percent from the start. But because he missed an absolute majority, there was a runoff against Köpper, who got 35.7 percent in the first ballot. Mr. Stuhlmann campaigned primarily against the traffic light coalition in Berlin with issues in which a district administrator has little say – such as energy and refugee policy.
Nationwide, the AfD is currently at 18 to 20 percent in surveys, in the five eastern federal states it achieves significantly higher values. In Thuringia, an Insa survey in April saw the AfD as the strongest party with 28 percent, ahead of the left with 22 percent. In Saxony, she was also number one in April with 28 percent at Insa, ahead of the CDU with 25 percent, in Brandenburg the AfD and SPD were tied with 24 percent each.
Is this now the ramp for the rights for election victories at the state level? It’s not out of the question, but it’s far from a given either. The AfD was at a similar poll high nationwide in 2018, but then did a little worse in the 2021 federal election with 10.3 percent than four years earlier. When an AfD victory threatened in Saxony-Anhalt in 2021, the CDU mobilized so successfully that they were way ahead in the end.
Nevertheless, this AfD success could be another indication that government majorities will become increasingly difficult to find. In Thuringia itself, this has been the case for years – Prime Minister Ramelow with his red-red-green minority government is indirectly dependent on the CDU.
The AfD itself sees the election as an opportunity to demonstrate its ability to govern – even if only on a very small scale. The future district administrator Stuhlmann will have a stage in the rural and conservative district in the southernmost tip of Thuringia, for example for protesting against the accommodation of refugees.
However, Stuhlmann does not have too much creative freedom. According to the law, a district administrator heads the district office and implements decisions of the district council – the office is often more like that of a managing director. The new district administrator will have to prove that he is moving what the district needs, said Ramelow. “He runs an administration.”