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The wing more extremist AfD seeks to consolidate with the election of Thuringia, The parties of the German Government to contain the rise of ultra in the East
The Left (Die Linke) has won the regional elections of this Sunday in Thuringia, in eastern Germany, where there has been a clear tendency to the fragmentation of a vote, it will force to work difficult partnerships, according to early projections. Alternative for Germany (AfD) has gained a huge electoral support, in this corner of the former German Democratic Republic, doubling their previous result. Nearly one out of every four voters would have elected the right wing, headed in Thuringia by his faction, more radical, and with which no party is willing to collaborate.
“I’m very proud of. It is a clear signal that a large part of the voters said that we cannot continue as until now […] everyone should be aware of this signal,” he said after learning the results, the candidate of the AfD in Thuringia, Björn Höcke. AfDd would have achieved even a better result that the centre-right party (CDU) of chancellor Angela Merkel, despite having been to Hungary a fief for decades from conservatives. AfD achieved a second place with 23.6% of the votes compared to 22.7% who would get the CDU. That would mean a loss of almost eleven percentage points for the chancellor’s party, which won in 2014 but was unable to form a Government. With 8.3% of the votes, the SPD would have suffered a new downturn, with a drop of about four percentage points. The grand coalition Government in Berlin have again lost regional representation, which adds to the wear and tear accumulated during the last two years.
until now head of the regional Government, Bodo Ramelow, head of poster of Die Linke, the party to the left of the social democrats, has been just as expected the great achiever to get a 30% of the votes (two points more than in the elections of 2014). The popularity of Ramelow transcends exceeded that of his party, who do not harvest success similar to the national level. Ramelow heads five years ago as an alliance with the social democrats and the Greens, despite the omens dire, has remained stable. Sunday’s results indicate, however, that it will not be possible to repeat the threesomes, that does not add up to the majority, and that there is no possible alliance to the view.
Former trade unionist, Ramelow, who comes from the west, however, is a politician very popular in the east. His pragmatism and ability of management has been recognized again by the voters. At the opposite pole is situated the far right of Björn Höcke, the spearhead of the most radical sector of AfD, with a xenophobic discourse, and with that relativizes the crimes of the Holocaust.
Der Flügel, as is the name of the faction ultra Höcke dispute the power of the considered sector most moderate of the far-right German. The Wing is going to grow in the presence and assertiveness in the country. Andreas Kalbitz, another prominent member of the movement, triumphed in the last election in Brandenburg in September. Nine months ago, the secret service, the germans decreed to The Wing “suspicious” and since then, the movement has radicalized, as recently stated to the German press and the president of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
the AfD entered the German Parliament in 2017 with a 12,6% of the votes, which became the main party in the opposition. Since then, its strength has stalled at the national level, but this duplicates the results of the election of the west. The elections in Thuringia have been the last of the triad this fall in the east of Germany and have shown that the AfD has been able to capitalize and exploit the discontent of a reunification successful, but at the same time imperfect.
German Reunification
The elections have been held two weeks before the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, which has been generated in the last months an intense debate about the causes of the frustrations of the nest still in the east of Germany. AfD has autoerigido defender of the interests of the citizens of the this, a message with the this Sunday in Thuringia has returned to seduce many.
What is the results of today also make it clear again, is that as in other federated States, the fragmentation is enhanced and the governance is more complicated. The strength of the extreme right, isolated as a consequence of a strict cordon sanitaire, national, but also regional and local, limits the possible coalitions of Government. The strong support for Die Linke, with whom the conservatives also raised, at least for the moment, a coalition, further reduces the chances of arithmetic at the time of forging alliances. The preliminary results indicate that it will take a coalition of four parties to achieve a majority government, or opt to govern in minority.
Threats of neo-nazi politicians
The candidate of the CDU, Mike Mohring, received during the campaign death threats allegedly from the environment of neo-nazi. You wrote that you would put a bomb on the underside of the car and ended the text with a “heil Hitler”. The co-leader national Green, Robert Habeck, and the minister-president of Die Linke in Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow, also received messages of the same type.
The elections were, in addition, two and a half weeks after a neo-nazi opened fire on a synagogue in Halle, in the Land neighbor, and killed two passers-by. The attack, which shocked the country, has cost the AfD accusations by politicians of left and right, who believe that the ultras create with their speeches a breeding ground conducive to attacks by extremists. The surveys reflected at the national level some wear on the intention to vote for the party of the extreme right after the attack. In Thuringia, however, these elections made it clear that the ultras not only do not suffer a fall, but that would have succeeded in doubling his mark of 2014 and exceed by nearly two points his result in the general of 2017.
