From the Liveblog of
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Germany’s far-right AfD on track for another state election win
Polls opened in the German state of Brandenburg, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is projected to finish first, aiming to build on recent successes in other eastern states and surpass Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats in this traditional stronghold.
The AfD became the first far-right party to win a state election in Germany since World War Two, in Thuringia, on Sept. 1 and just missed first place in Saxony.
It is one of several far-right groups in Europe capitalizing on worries over an economic slowdown, immigration and the Ukraine war – concerns that are particularly strong in formerly Communist-run eastern Germany.
The party, which is unlikely to be able to govern because it is polling short of a majority and other parties would refuse to work with it, is also seeking to gain from discontent over infighting in Scholz’s three-party federal coalition.
Hans-Christoph Berndt, the AfD candidate for Brandenburg state premier, cast his ballot in the town of Golssen, south of Berlin, expressing optimism about his party’s prospects with increased support compared to 2019.
“If we continue to receive the same level of support we’ve seen in recent weeks and months, things in Germany will start to improve,” Berndt says, adding that while the election was important, Brandenburg’s future won’t be decided solely by Sunday’s outcome.
An AfD victory in the state election would be a particular embarrassment for the Social Democrats (SPD), which has won elections in Brandenburg and governed the state of 2.5 million people since reunification in 1990.
The Times of Israel Community.