Far-right German party notches another win in mayoral race as it jumps in polls

FRANKFURT — Germany’s far-right AfD notched up another first Sunday when its candidate was elected as full-time town mayor, in a further boost for the anti-immigration party.

Alternative for Germany (AfD) has surged to record highs in opinion polls, and the latest result comes just a week after they won their first district election.

Hannes Loth was elected mayor of the small town of Raguhn-Jessnitz, in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, in a run-off against independent candidate Nils Naumann, according to results on the town’s Facebook page.

Loth, reportedly a 42-year-old farmer who was already a member of the local parliament, won 51.1% of the vote against 48.9% for Naumann in the town of about 9,000 inhabitants.

It marks the first time the party has won an election race for a full-time mayor’s position, German media reported. AfD members have held positions as voluntary, or part-time, mayors in smaller places.

An AfD member was a full-time mayor of a town in southwest Germany from 2018 to 2020 but was not elected under the party’s banner — he joined the outfit during his term.

Wir sind Bürgermeister! Herzlichen Glückwunsch an Hannes #Loth in #RaguhnJessnitz zu diesem Erfolg – er ist der erste #AfD-Bürgermeister Deutschlands! Vielen Dank an alle Wähler, Unterstützer und Wahlkämpfer! pic.twitter.com/YWs0KwnSjs

— AfD (@AfD) July 2, 2023

Loth thanked his supporters for the “wonderful result,” writing on social media: “I will be mayor for everyone in Raguhn-Jessnitz.”

In last week’s election, Robert Sesselmann, a lawyer and regional lawmaker, won a runoff for district administrator in Sonneberg in the central state of Thuringia, near the border with Bavaria.

Recent surveys have put support for the AfD at a record 18-20%, neck-and-neck with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and behind only the conservative CDU/CSU bloc.

Thomas Krueger, head of the federal agency for civic education, warned this weekend the party should not be dismissed as a “mere protest movement.”

“Voters want this party… the situation is serious,” he told the RND media group.

Created in 2013 as an anti-euro outfit before morphing into an anti-Islam, anti-immigration party, the AfD has benefited from growing discontent with Scholz’s three-party coalition amid concerns about inflation and the affordability of the government’s climate plans. High immigration also remains a key voter concern.

The AfD stunned the political establishment when it took around 13% of votes in the 2017 general elections, catapulting its lawmakers into the German parliament. It slid to around 10% in the 2021 federal election.