If the poll numbers remain the same, the AfD will emerge as the winner of the state election in Thuringia in 2024. With distance. The other parties are frightened by this prospect. But so far they have done nothing to keep the right-wingers out of power. They could do it.
A specter is haunting the state elections in East Germany, the specter of the AfD. In surveys, the party, which is classified as right-wing extremist in Saxony and Thuringia, is at 35 and 34 percent. In Brandenburg, where a new state parliament will also be elected in 2024, it is below the 30 percent mark, but even there it is ahead of all other parties. So far, the political reactions to this phenomenon have been surprisingly simple. First there was great horror and a fearful look to the East, then self-reassurance that the AfD would not find any partners to govern. The hope: The AfD may be king of the polls, but will remain a king without a country. Or a ghost, if you will.