Anti-mass immigration populist parties made major gains in German state elections on Sunday, with the right-wing Alternative for Germany expected to win a landslide victory in the state of Thuringia.
Exit polls in the eastern German state of Thuringia showed the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party leading with 30.5% of the vote, beating the 24.5% given to the neoliberal centrist Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party formerly led by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
If the exit poll results hold true, it would be the AfD's first victory in a German state election.
Meanwhile, in Saxony, the AfD is in a close race with the CDU, with exit polls predicting the centre-right party will get 31.5% of the vote, compared with 30% for the AfD, broadcaster DW reported. Reports.
However, given the small gap in support between the two parties, there is still a chance that the populist party could win a narrow victory in Saxony.
AfD co-leaders praise party's success Alice Weidel said her party should be involved in state government and opposed reported plans for other parties to band together to stop the Populists from coming to power.
“In normal circumstances, the most powerful party would seek to follow the custom in the country, and that would be the AfD,” Weidel said. said Referring to Thuringia, he said: “Voters want the AfD to be in government. We represent 30 percent of the voters in both states and a stable government is no longer possible without us.”
Germany's populist AfD party surpasses Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats in popularity https://t.co/8CdqlvP3qt
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 15, 2023
Meanwhile, left-wing populist Zahra Wagenknecht's eponymous party is expected to win double-digit votes in both states, currently forecasting 12.5 percent of the vote in Thuringia and 12 percent in Saxony. The strong showing for her upstart party, Zahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), shows that anti-mass immigration policies are supported on both the left and right of German politics.
Safra Wagenknecht, a former member of the Left Party, founded her own party earlier this year after disagreements with previous members on issues such as lockdowns, mandatory vaccinations, the war in Ukraine and mass immigration. Wagenknecht, who speaks from a left-wing perspective, criticizes mass immigration for weakening Germany's working class and wasting national resources.
Many of her key policies are similar to those advocated by the AfD, but Wagenknecht has previously ruled out affiliation with a right-wing party, and this week Accused The AfD's candidate for Thuringia, Björn Höcke, was accused of harboring “Nazi ideology”.
The results for Wagenknecht's upstart party will put him in a better position to mount a more meaningful challenge in next year's federal election, which just a few months ago already outperformed Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats, who are projected to win just 7% of the vote in Thuringia and 8.5% in Saxony.
Zara Wagenknecht, a left-wing populist leader opposed to mass immigration, attacked with red paint in Germanyhttps://t.co/ZZodo7YlMp
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 30, 2024
