Breakthrough for the extreme right in the state elections

The founding of a new party by a prominent leftist also had an immediate impact, while the parties of the unpopular federal government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz achieved extremely weak results.

Projections by the public television stations ARD and ZDF based on election day surveys and partial counts showed that the Alternative for Germany received 32 to 33 percent of the vote in Thuringia, well ahead of the center-right party, the largest opposition party at the national level, with around 24 percent.

In neighboring Saxony, forecasts put the approval ratings of the CDU, which has led the state since German reunification in 1990, at 31.5 to 31.8 percent, and those of the AfD at 30.7 to 31.4 percent.

“The fact that for the first time since 1949 an openly right-wing extremist party has become the strongest force in a state parliament is causing great concern and fear among many people,” said Omid Nouripour, one of the leaders of the Greens, one of the nationwide governing parties.

Other parties declare that they will not help the AfD come to power by forming a coalition.

Nevertheless, the party’s strength is likely to make the formation of new state governments extremely difficult and force other parties to form exotic new coalitions.

The new alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) received 16 percent of the votes in Thuringia and 12 percent in Saxony, which made the situation even more complicated.

“This is a historic success for us,” said Alice Weidel, federal chairwoman of the AfD, to ARD.

She described the result as a “requiem” for Mr Scholz’s coalition.

CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann said: “The voters in both countries knew that we would not form a coalition with the AfD and that will remain the case – we say that very, very clearly.”

Ms Weidel denounced this as “pure ignorance” and said “voters want the AfD to participate in government”.

Deep dissatisfaction with a government notorious for its power struggles, anti-immigration sentiment and skepticism about German military aid to Ukraine are among the factors that have contributed to support for populist parties in the region, which is less prosperous than West Germany.

The AfD is most strongly represented in the formerly communist East, and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution officially monitors the party’s branches in Saxony and Thuringia as “proven right-wing extremist” groups.

Its chairman in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, was convicted of deliberately using a Nazi slogan at political events, but has appealed against the verdict.

When an ARD interviewer mentioned the intelligence agency’s assessment, Hocke reacted angrily and replied: “Please stop stigmatizing me.

“We are the number 1 party in Thuringia.

“You don’t want a third of the voters in Thuringia to be classified as right-wing extremists.”

He said he was “very, very proud” of his 11-year-old party’s result on Sunday and that “the old parties should show humility”.

Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats would remain in at least the two state parliaments with single-digit votes, but the environmental Greens would lose their seats in Thuringia.

The two parties were the junior partners in the coalition in the outgoing state governments.

The third largest government party, the business-friendly Free Democrats, also lost its seats in Thuringia.

It had no representation in Saxony.

A third state election will be held on September 22 in another eastern state, Brandenburg, which is currently led by Scholz’s party.

The next federal elections will take place in Germany in just over a year.

The political situation in Thuringia is particularly complicated because the Left Party of outgoing Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow has slipped into insignificance at the national level.

Compared to five years ago, it lost almost two-thirds of its approval rating, falling to around 12 percent.

Sahra Wagenknecht, long one of its best-known figures, left the party last year to found her own party, which now surpasses the Left Party.

Ms Wagenknecht celebrated her party’s success, underlined her refusal to work with AfD leader Hocke and expressed her hope that the party could form “a good government” with the CDU.

The CDU had long refused to cooperate with the Left Party, which emerged from the ruling communists in East Germany.

A cooperation with Wagenknecht’s BSW, which would probably be necessary at least in Thuringia for the formation of a government without the AfD, is not ruled out.

The BSW is also strongest in the east.

The AfD is taking advantage of the strong anti-immigration sentiment in the region.

The August 23 knife attack in the Westphalian town of Solingen, in which a suspected extremist from Syria is said to have killed three people, helped put the issue back at the top of Germany’s political agenda and prompted Mr Scholz’s government to announce new restrictions on knives and new measures to facilitate deportations.

Ms Wagenknecht’s BSW combines left-wing economic policy with an immigration-sceptical agenda.

In addition, the CDU has increased pressure on the federal government to take a tougher stance on immigration policy.

Germany’s attitude towards Russia’s war in Ukraine is also a sensitive issue in the East.

Berlin is the second largest arms supplier to Ukraine after the USA; these arms deliveries are rejected by both the AfD and the BSW.

Ms Wagenknecht also criticised the recent decision by the German government and the USA to begin stationing long-range missiles in Germany from 2026.