Joy and dark fears: AfD wins in East Germany – Europe

For them, the hero of the hour was Björn Höcke, the former history teacher who ran for office in Thuringia and gave the Alternative for Germany (AfD) its biggest electoral victory to date.

“He absolutely had to win,” said 32-year-old party colleague Patrick Teichmann, his eyes sparkling with joy at the rise of the party that has vowed to deport illegal immigrants.

He wore a T-shirt with Hoecke's signature and described the 52-year-old state chairman as “the only politician these days who still has any sense.”

The vote count was still ongoing late on Sunday, but with around 33 percent, the AfD seemed to have won its first victory in the state elections, dealing a blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left government in Berlin.

In the Thuringian capital of Erfurt, vegetable farmer Teichmann enjoyed the moment with friends.

They were on a street halfway between the AfD's closed election party in a traditional restaurant and an anti-fascist demonstration that took place under strict police surveillance.

When the first results were announced, Hoecke, a slim man with piercing blue eyes, briefly appeared before the media with his arms raised and celebrated “a historic victory.”

Teichmann is convinced that great things still lie ahead for Hoecke, who comes from West Germany, and expresses the hope that he can “still save” Thuringia and then the rest of the country.

Many German observers are deeply concerned about the AfD's rise over the course of a decade from a eurosceptic fringe group to a nationalist, anti-immigration movement.

After the first election day polls were announced, several hundred young demonstrators gathered near the state parliament, most of them from the Antifa movement and dressed in black.

Rally organizers alerted them to laws prohibiting completely covering the face with scarves or ski masks, while around 50 police officers kept a watchful eye on the rally.

Posters contained slogans calling for a ban on the AfD and for support for refugees.

In Germany, there has been a public debate for years about the large number of asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan and other countries. The mood is sometimes fuelled by violent crimes.

About a week before the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony, Germany was shocked by a stabbing at a street festival in the western city of Solingen. A 26-year-old Syrian with suspected links to the terrorist militia “Islamic State” is said to have killed three people.

Another AfD supporter in Erfurt, a 54-year-old wholesaler who only gave his name as Jörg, called for “comprehensive changes … that are only possible with the AfD,” including increased deportations of criminal immigrants.

The expulsion of foreigners from Germany as part of a “remigration program” was a pillar of Hoecke’s election campaign.

Teichmann made a common claim by the AfD and accused most foreign migrants in Germany of “pretending to be refugees in order to benefit from the German social system”.

Meanwhile, the group of anti-AfD demonstrators marched through the city as darkness fell, through middle-class suburbs and past dreary apartment blocks from the communist era.

Some said they were dejected by the AfD's historic victory in their rural state, which was reminiscent of strong gains in neighboring Saxony and unsettled the political establishment.

“I didn't expect such an outcome,” said one activist who gave his name only as Jonas, a 30-year-old physiotherapist. “I had hoped that the demonstrations of the last few days would have changed things a little.”

On their way, the Antifa demonstrators received applause from some passers-by, angry shouts and a thumbs-down from others.

An 83-year-old woman named Käthe, a member of the group “Grandmas against the Right,” expressed her fears about the AfD’s triumphal day.

Referring to the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s, she warned: “History taught us almost 100 years ago what this victory of the AfD could mean.”

“The population is very divided,” she said. “We are no longer able to raise people's awareness as we used to.”