Another week, another populist / nationalist right victory in Germany | Eastern NC Now

In multi-party Germany, most politics is based on coalition building, and it is only at the local level for burgermeisters (mayors) and district administrators that a party has to obtain an actual majority to win election.  Eight parties currently sit in the national parliament, the Bundestag, with several others in state parliaments.

For the populist / nationalist anti-immigration right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD), that has been a particular challenge because all the other parties gang up against them when it gets down to the inevitable run-offs for these majoritarian offices.  But in two successive weeks, the AfD has made its first breakthrougs at this level, beating the CDU incumbent for district administrator in the district of Sonneberg in the state of Thuringia, and a week later beating an independent in a runoff for mayor of the town of Raghun-Jessnitz in Saxony-Anhalt.   German state and local elections are held at scattered times throughout the year. 

Both Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt are in eastern Germany where the AfD is the leading party in the polls in all the east German states.  It is running second to the CDU nationwide and ahead of the governing Social Democrats.

The AfD is focusing its campaign on its longstanding opposition to Third World migration and to the green energy transition which is sending German utility bills through the roof.   Officials in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the traditional conservative party, say that the immigration policies and energy policies of the Social Democrat led government are likely to lead to more AfD victories.

In Sonneberg, the Thuringian state government, a coalition of the center-left Social Democrats and the far left Green Party and far left Left Party, has said it is going to reexamine the "qualifications" of the new AfD district administrator after he has won. He already passed the qualification test when he first filed, but they are taking the highly unusual step of doing it again.  If they try to deny him the seat he has been elected to, this is expected to backfire on the left and just put more momentum behind the AfD.

https://rmx.news/germany/afd-wins-first-mayoral-election-in-germany-rival-politicians-warn-of-more-victories-ahead/

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/afd-wins-first-mayoral-election-germany-rival-politicians-warn-more-victories-ahead