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The far-right Alternative for Germany has won its first election for mayor of a midsized German town, another milestone in the rising popularity of the party that has been boosted by voter disillusionment with the country’s ruling coalition.
Tim Lochner won 38.5 per cent of votes in Sunday’s second round ballot in Pirna, a town in eastern Germany close to the Czech border, seeing off candidates from the centre-right Christian Democratic Union and the liberal Free Democrats.
Lochner, a 53-year-old carpenter, is not a member of the AfD but stood as the party’s candidate.
The unpopularity of Germany’s ruling coalition was underlined by a survey published by Bild Zeitung on Saturday showing 59 per cent of people want elections next year to change the federal government even though a poll is not due until 2025.
The victory for the AfD in Pirna, a town of 40,000 inhabitants south-east of Dresden, followed a strong showing in regional elections in October.
It shocked mainstream parties by garnering 18.6 per cent in Hesse and 14.6 per cent in Bavaria — unusually high shares for the AfD in the more affluent west.
Sections of the AfD have been designated extremist by German domestic intelligence services: one of its leaders is set to stand trial for allegedly using banned Nazi slogans; a former AfD MP was arrested last year over her role in an alleged plot by radicals to overthrow the national government; and an AfD member of Bavaria’s state parliament was arrested in October for sedition and possession of Nazi materials.
Yet none of that has deterred voters, who are abandoning traditional parties in droves, with some choosing to support the AfD.
Voters seem to be turning against chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition over issues ranging from high inflation, a stagnant economy, surging energy costs and a jump in irregular immigration.
The federal government’s standing suffered a fresh blow last month after a ruling by the highest court that left a €60bn hole in its budget plans and forced the coalition to accept spending cuts.
The AfD is polling at about 22 per cent in national surveys, ahead of all three parties in Scholz’s coalition: the Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats.
In August, the AfD won its first election for mayor in a rural municipality in Raguhn-Jeßnitz, in eastern Germany. In June, it won its first election for head of a district council in Sonneberg, also in the east.
But despite the AfD’s election victories, it is still a fringe movement. Traditional parties have erected a “firewall” around the party, insisting they will never co-operate or form coalitions with it, either at a federal or regional level.
However, concerns are rising that the firewall will not survive for long — especially in Germany’s eastern states where the AfD is polling above 30 per cent. Other parties may struggle to form coalitions without it.
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