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AfD man in the lead in district elections – runoff vote decides
Going into a runoff in the district election in the Saale-Orla district on January 28th: AfD candidate Uwe Thrum and CDU politician Christian Herrgott. photo
© Martin Schutt/dpa
After Sonneberg, will the second Thuringian district soon have an AfD district administrator? After the first round of voting in the Saale-Orla district, there are some indications of this. But the decision has not yet been made.
According to preliminary results, CDU man Herrgott received 33.3 percent of the vote. Both candidates now have to face a runoff election on January 28th.
The AfD then has the chance to appoint the second district administrator in Thuringia after Robert Sesselmann in Sonneberg – Thrum could also become the second AfD man to hold a district administrator position nationwide.
The party is classified and monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the Free State as proven right-wing extremist. The election came in the middle of the flaring discussion about a ban on the AfD after a meeting of right-wing extremists in Potsdam, which the media company Correctiv reported on. AfD politicians were also among the participants.
In the runoff election in the Saale-Orla district, a successor is being sought for the CDU district administrator Thomas Fügmann, who has been in office for twelve years. A total of over 60,000 eligible voters were called to cast their votes on Sunday, and turnout was around 66 percent.
Protests in advance
Like Herrgott, Thrum is a member of the Thuringian state parliament. In the run-up to the election, there were protests from civil society against his candidacy.
The left-wing state parliament member Ralf Kalich with 6.9 percent and the independent candidate put forward by the SPD Regina Butz with 14.2 percent did not make it into the runoff election.
The election is also seen as the first mood test for Thuringia’s super election year 2024. At the end of May, a number of district administrators and mayors will be elected in the local elections. The state elections will take place on September 1st. There are once again signs that it will be difficult to form a government in the Free State.
State elections are also coming up in Saxony and Brandenburg this year. The AfD is ahead in surveys in all three countries, in some cases clearly.