Scholz's party beats right-wing extremist AfD in state election

Issued on: 22.09.2024 – 19:08

3 minutes

In the state elections in the formerly communist east, the Social Democrats of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were narrowly ahead of the right-wing extremist AfD on Sunday, according to election day polls.

Scholz's centre-left SPD party won 31 to 32 percent of the vote, just ahead of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, which received 29 to 30 percent according to polls by the two main public broadcasters.

If the result is confirmed, it would be a rare respite for Scholz's ailing coalition government, which has suffered a slump in opinion polls a year before the federal elections.

The polls in the state of Brandenburg were closely watched because Scholz's SPD has governed there since German reunification in 1990 and because the chancellor's constituency in the state capital Potsdam is outside Berlin.

The AfD, which rails against asylum seekers, multiculturalism, Islam and the Scholz government, had hoped to repeat its recent electoral success in the East.

Three weeks ago, she surprised the political establishment when she took first place for the first time in a state election in the eastern state of Thuringia and narrowly came second in neighboring Saxony.

Despite its electoral success, it is unlikely that the AfD will take power in any federal state, as all other established parties have so far ruled out a government coalition with the party.

Brandenburg's popular SPD Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke distanced himself from his party colleague Scholz during the election campaign.

Woidke, who has been in office for more than a decade, had also issued a challenge to voters by announcing that he would resign if the AfD won.

Fear of attacks

The ten-year-old AfD, originally a eurosceptic party, has long stoked public fears about irregular migration, particularly after a series of recent attacks with suspected Islamist motives.

Germany was shocked by a knife rampage that left three people dead and eight injured in Solingen last month. Police arrested a Syrian asylum seeker who allegedly joined the terrorist group Islamic State and evaded a deportation order.

The AfD's populist rhetoric and its appeal to many young voters have increased political pressure on Scholz and his government allies, the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats, whose vote totals in Sunday's state election were in the low single digits.

Due to internal power struggles within the government, Scholz's approval ratings have fallen dramatically, while his defense minister, Social Democrat Boris Pistorius, often tops polls as Germany's most popular politician.

In the run-up to the federal election in September 2025, the conservative opposition parties of the CDU-CSU last week chose their party leader Friedrich Merz as their top candidate.

Left-wing kingmaker?

In Brandenburg, around 2.1 million people over the age of 16 were eligible to vote.

The state includes wealthy cities such as Potsdam as well as sparsely populated rural areas and industrial areas, one of which is home to a Tesla factory.

According to a recent survey conducted in Brandenburg, immigration is the biggest concern for many voters.

This year, a second populist party was also formed, the left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which, according to opinion polls, received around 12 percent of the vote in Brandenburg.

Wagenknecht comes from the former GDR, is an experienced opposition politician and frequent guest on television talk shows. She left the far-right party “Die Linke” to found her own movement.

She described the BSW's policies as “left-conservative” – ​​a mix of economic policies to support workers and the poor and conservative cultural positions, including limiting immigration.

After good results in three state elections in the east, Wagenknecht's party could potentially take on the role of kingmaker, making the task more difficult for other parties that reject its pro-Russian and anti-NATO stance.

(AFP)