populist national right doubles seats in Lower Saxony state election in Germany | Eastern NC Now

Germany's populist / nationalist anti-immigration Alternativ fur Deutschland (AfD) doubled its seats in the parliament of the German state of Lower Saxony in the state election.  The big parties only traded a handful of seats and the major movements were among the smaller parties.  The pro-business small-government oriented Free Democrats, however, lost all of their seats.  AfD went from 9 seats to 18, while the Free Democrats (FPD) lost all 11 of the seats they had.

The AfD has been running well in the polls since the last national election, and this result confirms their surge.

The FDP, on the other hand is being punished for forming a national governing coalition with the Social Democrats and the Green Party.  After the previous Lower Saxony state election, the FDP had categorically stated that under no circumstances would they form a coalition with those two leftwing parties, but now their national party is in a coalition with those very parties.  Their voter base clearly does not approve.

The FDP has traditionally been to the right of the Christian Democrats, taking a stronger stance against illegal immigration than the CDU and being more skeptical on green energy than the CDU.  Now they are part of a national coalition that is very soft on illegal immigration and very hard line on pushing green energy.  That has turned off their voters.

The AfD has prospered by a hard line against illegal immigration, and pushing cheap and reliable energy instead of climate alarmism.

The state of Lower Saxony , which is in northwestern Germany is not to be confused with the traditional state of Saxony, a former kingdom located in southeastern Germany,  The name Lower Saxony was placed on a merger of the former kingdom of Hanover, Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, and Duchy of Brunswick that was created after World War II.