CIVICUS discusses far-right successes in recent regional elections in Germany with Viktoria Kamuf, research associate at the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society, a research organisation based in the German state of Thuringia.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made significant gains in state elections in Saxony and Thuringia on 1 September. In Thuringia, the AfD won over 32 per cent of the vote, overtaking the Christian Democrats (CDU) and becoming the first far-right party to win the most seats in a state election since the Second World War. In Saxony, the AfD almost matched the CDU with around 31 per cent of the vote. The results signal growing support for nationalist, anti-immigrant policies in eastern Germany. Other parties have ruled out forming coalitions with the AfD, but even if excluded from government it will have political influence.
