Far-right could win first state in two East German elections

1/9/2024 13:30

        Germans head to the polls in two eastern states on Sunday, with the far-right AfD on track to win a state election for the first time and Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition set to receive a drubbing just a year before federal elections.
        
        The Alternative for Germany is polling first on 30% in Thuringia and neck-and-neck with the conservatives in Saxony on 30-32%. A win would mark the first time a far-right party has the most seats in a German state parliament since World War Two.
        
        The 11-year-old party would be unlikely to be able to form a state government even if it does win, as it is polling short of a majority and other parties refuse to collaborate with it.
        
        But a strong showing for the AfD and another populist party, the newly-created Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), named after its founder, a former communist, would complicate coalition building.
        
        Both parties are anti-migration, eurosceptic, Russia-friendly and are particularly strong in the former Communist-run East, where concerns about a cost of living crisis, the Ukraine war and immigration run deep.