Saxony-Anhalt
Mayor election in Bitterfeld: SPD wants to prevent AfD
On Sunday it will be decided in the town of 37,000 in Saxony-Anhalt whether the CDU incumbent Armin Schenk will continue or whether he will be replaced by AfD politician Henning Dornack. photo
© Jan Woitas/dpa
Can the AfD win a mayoral election for the first time? That will be decided on Sunday in Bitterfeld. The SPD in the Bundestag is calling for a joint effort against the party.
The SPD in the Bundestag is concerned about the possible initial success of the AfD in a mayoral election this Sunday. Before the runoff election in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, the parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, told the German Press Agency: “We need another effort from society as a whole to break through the AfD’s strategy of conquering municipalities nationwide.”
On Sunday it will be decided in the town of 37,000 in Saxony-Anhalt whether the CDU incumbent Armin Schenk will continue or whether he will be replaced by AfD politician Henning Dornack. Dornack could become the first AfD politician to be elected mayor. To prevent his election, a non-partisan alliance for democracy and tolerance has initiated an online petition.
Mast pointed out that in Nordhausen, Thuringia, they had recently succeeded in preventing the AfD candidate. “So why not in Bitterfeld?” In Nordhausen, the AfD candidate was recently ahead in the first round of the mayoral election, but lost in the runoff.
Mast: Put the AfD in its place
Mast said: “And we must not forget: In the Dahme-Spreewald district in Brandenburg, Sunday is also about clearly putting the AfD in its place.” A new district administrator is elected here.
Mast said: “From Berlin, we are of course keeping an eye on the state elections in Hesse and Bavaria. But of course we are also looking at the municipalities.” She won’t do the AfD the favor of letting them get away politically anywhere. “They are and remain a real danger to our country – at all political levels.” Mast accused the AfD of widespread openly right-wing extremist attitudes and false political responses in favor of the rich and wealthy.