The far-right German AfD party took a new step in its electoral progress on Sunday evening. A week after he won his first local authority, he was elected the first full-time mayor of a municipality in the east of the country.
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Hannes Loth, 42, was elected leader of Raguhn-Jessnitz under the colors of Alternative for Germany (AfD), an area of 9,000 people in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, according to figures posted on the municipal Facebook page. With 51.13%, this elected representative of the regional parliament was ahead of the unlabeled candidate.
A week ago, the far-right party was president of a regional community in Germany that united several municipalities: Schönberg, in the Land of Thuringia, in the east of the country.
“After the first community, we now have the AfD’s first full-time mayor,” party leader Christian Plex rejoiced on social media.
Strong motivation
A small number of German villages already had AfD mayors, but this was a voluntary role and these elected officials had another job at the same time. This time the mayor will be in office full-time, according to all major German media, a truly unprecedented election from this point of view.
Similarly, Burladingen, a municipality in the southwest of the country with a population of 12,000, was led by the AfD elected between 2018 and 2020, but the latter was not elected under the party’s colors, he joined the term.
This anti-immigration, Eurosceptic movement, which formed ten years ago, comes on the back of strong growth in opinion polls defending pro-Russian positions. According to a poll conducted by the Insa Institute published by the Sunday edition of Bild daily, the AfD has a 20% lead in the voting intentions of President Olaf Scholes’ Social Democrats (19%).
During the last legislative elections in 2021, the far-right party registered less than half the vote with 10.3% of the vote. The AfD is particularly established in the east of the country, which feels left behind.
“It’s serious”
The party has been reeling for months from public discontent fueled by inflation or environmental change, spurred on by ecologists, a member of the ruling coalition.
The head of the Federal Agency for Civic Education, which is responsible for education programs in Germany, warned this weekend against the risk of reducing the AfD’s progress to “a simple protest movement”.
“Voters love this party and that’s where the situation is serious,” Thomas Krueger told the RND regional press group. “There are certain positions entrenched in a section of society which are incompatible with democratic ideals and unacceptable,” he added.
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