The AfD politician Rolf Weigand has won the mayoral election in Groß Schirma in central Saxony. According to preliminary election results, he received 59.4 percent of the vote in the first round on Sunday. Weigand, a member of the state parliament, ran as an individual candidate against two other candidates. André Erler got 22.3 percent for the Independent Citizens’ Association. Gunther Zschommler achieved 18.2 percent for the CDU.
The election in the small town of 5,500 residents became necessary after the suicide of the long-time incumbent Volkmar Schreiter last fall. Weigand also ran in the previous mayoral election, but was defeated by Schreiter.
Weigand is the second man to fill a mayoral position for the AfD in Saxony. Tim Lochner only took office as mayor of Pirna at the beginning of the week. Lochner is not an AfD member, but was nominated for election by the party. In other federal states, the party appoints the mayor in, among others, Raguhn-Jeßnitz in Saxony-Anhalt. In June, the AfD won a district election in Germany for the first time, in the Sonneberg district in Thuringia.