Far-right group that invokes Nazi past on track for more state election success in Germany
Polls opened on Sunday in the German state of Brandenburg, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is projected to finish first.
Polls opened on Sunday in the German state of Brandenburg, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is projected to finish first, aiming to build on recent successes in other eastern states and surpass Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats in this traditional stronghold.
The AfD became the first far-right party to win a state election in Germany since World War II, in Thuringia, on Sept. 1 and just missed first place in Saxony.
It is one of several far-right groups in Europe capitalising on worries over an economic slowdown, immigration and the Ukraine war — concerns that are particularly strong in formerly Communist-run eastern Germany.
The party, which is unlikely to be able to govern because it is polling short of a majority and other parties would refuse to work with it, is also seeking to gain from discontent over infighting in Scholz’s three-party federal coalition.
Hans-Christoph Berndt, the AfD candidate for Brandenburg state premier, cast his ballot on Sunday in the town of Golssen, south of Berlin, expressing optimism about his party’s prospects with increased support compared to 2019.
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