A far-right party appears to be on track to win a German state election for the first time since World War II.
Exit polls suggest Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) will become the largest party in Thuringia, in the east of the country, with 30.5-33.5% of the vote.
It also appears to be roughly level with the main German opposition party, the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), following another election in Saxony.
However, the AfD may struggle to form a government in either region as the CDU – once led by Angela Merkel – maintains its longstanding position of refusing to work with the anti-immigrant party.
Alice Weidel, a national co-leader of AfD, described the stance as ‘pure ignorance’ and said that ‘voters want AfD to participate in a a government’.
Today’s state elections came after thousands of people rallied in Erfurt, the regional capital of Thuringia, to denounce the AfD as fascists.
In May, local party leader Björn Höcke was fined €13,000 for using a Nazi slogan, though he claimed he did not know its meaning.
The elections were widely predicted to be bad news for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as well as the other parties in his ruling coalition.
Some forecasts suggested none of the parties in the national government would win a single seat in Thuringia, though it now appears that the SDP may emerge with some representatives.
Nevertheless, the overall picture does not appear positive for Scholz or his coalition partners as they contend with strong anti-immigrant sentimentand scepticism towards Germany’s military support for Ukraine.
Another figure who has benefitted from the lack of popularity for the country’s mainstream parties is Sahra Wagenknecht, whose self-titled Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance could take up to 16% of the vote in Thuringia and 12% in Saxony.
Wagenknecht, a left-wing populist, has surged in polls with stances on topics such as immigration and Ukraine that would more often be associated with the right wing of politics.
The next national election in Germany will take place in a little over a year.
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