On Sunday, the far-right Alternative for Germany party won the mayorship of a city for the first time in the country, according to preliminary results, in a new achievement for the anti-immigration party, whose popularity polls indicate has risen.
Tim Lochner, who works as a carpenter, came in first in the run-off for the municipal elections in the city of Pirna, which has a population of about 40,000 people and is located in the eastern state of Saxony.
This victory comes just days after Germany’s domestic intelligence agency classified the Alternative for Germany party in Saxony as an extremist organization, citing its “anti-immigrant rhetoric and efforts to undermine democracy.”
Preliminary results showed that Lochner, who does not belong to the party but supports it, received 38.5 percent of the votes.
In a post on the X platform, the party’s co-chair, Alice Fidel, praised the victory, describing it as a “historic result.”
But the Green Party in Saxony, on the same platform, expressed its feeling of “horror at electing a mayor from a party that was classified last week as extremist.”
This victory is the latest in a series of electoral successes achieved by the Alternative for Germany party, which was founded in 2013 as an anti-European Union political institution, before exploiting popular anger against immigration to rally support.
The party secured its first administrative position in June, in another eastern state, Thuringia, and its first town mayorship in July in the neighboring state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Other candidates from the party recently came close to winning the mayorship of cities, but none of them succeeded in achieving this before the Berna elections.
The Alternative for Germany party enjoys strong support in the former East German regions, where its support rate in opinion polls stands at about 32 percent, according to a recent poll conducted by Der Spiegel magazine.
The state of Saxony is scheduled to elect its regional parliament in September 2024, along with two other states: Brandenburg and Thuringia.
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2023-12-18 05:24:05
