More than half of German citizens believe that a representative of the opposition party Alternative for Germany will become prime minister for the first time in one of the federal states of Germany this year, the newspaper Die Zeit reported on Wednesday, January 3, citing the results of a dpa poll.
More than 53% of respondents expect that a candidate from the opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD) will become prime minister of at least one of the three federal states following the September elections.
Only 32% of respondents called it “unlikely” a scenario in which Saxony, Thuringia or Brandenburg would be governed by a government led by an AfD representative.
State elections in three regions of eastern Germany will be held in September. According to current opinion polls, the opposition AfD is leading in each of the three federal states.
In particular, if the vote were held this coming Sunday, more than 37% of Saxony residents would vote in favor of the AfD. For comparison, the second-place Christian Democratic Union (CDU) would have secured the support of 33% of voters, while the remaining parties would have been content with 1 to 8%.
In Thuringia, 36.5% of respondents say they are ready to vote for the AfD, while the gap with the next-ranking Left party, which currently heads the regional government, is 9.5 percentage points. (27%).
Finally, in Brandenburg, the AfD is ahead of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) under the leadership of the Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke by 5 p.p. and gains 32% of potential votes (27%).
Thus, in each of the three federal states, the AfD is currently ahead of the leaders of the ruling coalitions. At the same time, all parties that are part of the Landtags exclude the possibility of cooperation with the AfD and the formation of an alliance with an allegedly “radical right” political force in September. Thus, the AfD will have a real opportunity to lead the government of one of the states for the first time in its history only if the party receives more than 50% of the votes.
However, according to the relative majority of German citizens (42%), the AfD’s opposition partner, the CDU, will probably not keep its promise not to form a ruling coalition with the AfD. Only 36% of respondents called such a scenario “unlikely.” In such a case, the only parliamentary party in Germany advocating normalization of relations with Russia will have a serious chance of participating in the formation of a number of regional governments.
Such scenarios cause serious concern among representatives of the ruling SPD at the federal level. On Monday, the co-chairman of the Social Democrats Zaskia Esken spoke in favor of preserving the legal possibility of banning the AfD.
“Such a ban is associated with significant obstacles. But I am convinced that we must continue to consider this issue,” she argued.
At the end of December, her fellow party member, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Thuringia Georg Mayer announced the need to amend the Basic Law (Constitution) of Germany in order to limit the opportunities for the AfD to participate in governing the country
2024-01-04 15:28:00
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