The election day polls for the broadcasters ARD and ZDF shows that the party gets between 30 and 33 percent in the state.
According to ZDF’s poll, the AfD gets 33.5 percent, up 10 percentage points from the last election in 2019. The Christian Democratic CDU is at 24.5 percent, while the newcomer BSW on the far left gets 14.5 percent.
The Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP), who all sit in Prime Minister Olaf Scholz’s federal government, are doing very poorly. Both the Greens and the Free Democrats are likely to fall below the threshold.
This could create further tensions in the coalition ahead of the national parliamentary elections next year.
The Christian Democrats largest in Saxony
In the neighboring state of Saxony, which also had elections for the state assembly on Sunday, the CDU is just ahead of the AfD in the election day polls, which will nevertheless be the second largest party in the state.
ARD’s election day survey for the state shows the CDU at 31.5 per cent, the AfD at 30 and the BSW at 12 per cent. Here, too, the FDP is likely to fall below the blocking limit.
Later in September, there are state elections in Brandenburg, and here too the AfD is facing a snap election.
Has been fined for Nazi slogans
Other parties have made it clear that they do not want to cooperate with the AfD, and it is unlikely that the party will form a state government.
The AfD in Thuringia and Saxony are both monitored by the German intelligence service BfV and are classified as far-right. The party’s state leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, has been fined on two occasions for using Nazi slogans.
Höcke has also tried to ban certain media from the party’s election vigil. When these media went to court and won, the party responded by banning all media from election vigil.
Dramatic time
The far-left party BSW was formed by Sahra Wagenknecht, a breakaway from the left-wing party Die Linke, which is falling sharply.
Both AfD and BSW have profited a lot from immigration resistance and skepticism in support of Ukraine. Both are frowned upon by the more established parties in Germany. Especially in Thuringia, it will be difficult for other parties to form a majority without including one of them.
The state elections were held just over a week after the knife attack in Solingen, where a 26-year-old Syrian man is accused of killing three people and injuring eight others during a town party.
The elections are also being held at a time when the German economy has slowed down and there is much dissatisfaction with the federal government.
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2024-09-01 21:05:40
