The extreme right is heading for victory in the German state

 

German politics
The extreme right advances in German state elections

Oskar Forsberg

Updated 20.27 | Published 19.24

Björn Höcke is the top candidate for the AfD in Thuringia, where the party looks set to win. Photo: Michael Kappeler / AP

The far-right AfD looks set to become the largest party in the German state of Thuringia's elections.

The leader of the AfD in Thuringia has been convicted of chanting Nazi slogans.

Elections are also held in the state of Saxony today, and there it is incredibly even.

The far-right party AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) looks set to become the largest party in the German state of Thuringia after Sunday's state election, according to a first forecast according to German media.

If the forecast is correct, it will be the first time since the Second World War that a far-right party has become the largest in a German state election.

This is reported by TT.

According to the first forecast, the Social Democrats SPD, to which German Chancellor Olaf Scholz belongs, only get 6.5 percent in Thuringia, much less than the 33.5 and 24.5 percent respectively that the AfD and Christian Democratic CDU are struggling with.

AfD sympathizers during the election campaign. Photo: Markus Schreiber / AP

Far right

The far-right party AFD is classified by the intelligence service as extreme right (in Thuringia, among others) and Björn Höcke, leader of the party in the state, has himself been sentenced to daily fines on two occasions for chanting Nazi slogans during election rallies.

Together with his party colleague André Poggenburg, 52-year-old Höcke initiated the Erfurt resolution.

He belongs to AfD's new right-wing phalanx. Academics in Germany have described Höcke as a right-wing extremist, racist and revisionist of history.

Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Photo: AP

Similar to Goebbels

He has also been compared to Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

This after having used the same metaphor as Goebbels in an attention-grabbing speech, according to according to Der Spiegel.

"Höcke is a history teacher and often uses historical comparisons in his speeches. It is quite certain that he knows what he is talking about," writes Der Spiegel.

Russians in Saxony

In the state of Saxony, which also went to the polls on Sunday, it appears to be very even between AfD and CDU. The conservative CDU, on the other hand, appears to be narrowly leading, with 32 percent, along with the AfD's 31.5 percent, according to Welt.

The governing parties SPD, liberal FDP and the Green Party have all made a poor choice, with far less than 10 percent each in both Thuringia and Saxony.

Instead, the newly formed upstart party BSW, which is far to the left, managed to get 14.5 percent in Thuringia and 12 percent in Saxony.