In the local elections held on September 1, in the German federal states of Thuringia and Saxony, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, who oppose support for Ukraine, has significantly strengthened its position.
In Thuringia the AfD gained 32.8%. This is the first time since 1945 that a far-right party has won elections at the federal state level, according to exit polls. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has traditionally dominated the region, gained 23.6%. In Saxony, the CDU managed to maintain its lead with 31.9%, but the AfD was close behind with 30.6%.
The AfD’s Björn Höcke is going particularly far in his quest for rapprochement with Putin’s Russia. He is considered one of Germany’s most radical politicians and is seeking to be elected prime minister of Thuringia in the state elections on September.
Historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalzuk warns against the growing influence of such parties. Kovalchuk is convinced that there are still strong influences of the totalitarian dictatorship of the Socialist United Party that prevailed during the GDR, especially in East Germany. ‘What the AfD and the Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) want to copy from Putin is, so to speak, these state ideas of containment and control over society. This has a tradition in Russia, and he implements it to a certain extent through his authoritarian state model. And this is what serves as an example for them (for the AfD and the BSW – Ed.),’ the historian believes.
A large-scale study conducted by the University of Leipzig in 2023 showed that many people in eastern Germany are longing for authoritarian leadership.
While land policy in Germany primarily addresses school policy and regional infrastructure, a strong performance by the AfD and BSW could increase pressure on German policy towards Russia and Ukraine.
Meanwhile, AfD politician Bjorn Hecke promised during his election campaign that if he was ever elected federal chancellor, he would make his first foreign trip to Moscow, not the US.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz calls for preventing AfD from governing in the Länder. Scholz called on political parties to form coalitions in state parliaments without the right-wing populist AfD, which won the Thuringian elections and was among the top three in Saxony.
‘All democratic parties must form stable governments without right-wing extremists,’ the German Chancellor stressed. The outcome of the elections in the two eastern German states – the actual success of the right-wing populists from the AfD – is a cause for concern, Scholz added.
