German far-right party wins in state election since World War 2

The Alternative for Germany party’s success in two state elections piled new pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s fractious government and left the country’s conservative opposition facing political contortions on Monday to find a way to govern a pair of eastern regions without involving the far-right party.

Alternative for Germany, or AfD, became the first far-right party to win a state election in post-World War II Germany in Thuringia on Sunday under one of its hardest-right figures, Bjorn Hocke. In neighbouring Saxony, it finished only just behind the mainstream centre-right Christian Democratic Union, which leads the national opposition. Voters punished the three parties in Scholz’s governing coalition, which took well under 15 per cent of the vote between them.

Deep discontent with a national government notorious for infighting, inflation and a weak economy, anti-immigration sentiment and skepticism toward German military aid for Ukraine are among the factors that contributed to support for populist parties in the formerly communist east, which is less prosperous than western Germany. A new party founded by a prominent leftist was the second big winner on Sunday — and will probably be needed to form state governments since no one is prepared to govern with AfD.