anti-immigration populists make big gains in German state and in Czech elections | Eastern NC Now

Populist nationalist anti-immigration parties of both the right and left gained seats and vote share in the landtag (parliament) election in the German state of Brandenburg, while two of the three national left-liberal coalition parties crashed out of the landtag completely.. The traditional conservative CDU lost a few seats while the lead party in the national coalition did better than expected after its local leader moved to the right and started criticizing the national leadership of his own party.

The populist nationalist anti-immigration right Altenative fur Deutschland (AfD) gained 7 new seats for a total of 30 with 29.7% of the vote, coming in second.  They won enough seats to hold a "Blocking minority" to stop all landtag votes that require a supermajority.  In third place was the BSW, a populist and nationalist party of the left which is anti-immigration, anti-globalist, and anti-woke but takes leftwing positions on other issues, with 14 seats and 13.3% of the vote.

Crashing out of the Brandenburg landtag and winning no seats were two of the parties in the national left-liberal coalition, the Green Party and the Free Democrats.  Also losing all of its seats was the far left Left Party.  The Green Party also lost all of its seats in the recent state election in Thuringia.

Of the two large establishment parties, the center-left Social Democrats, who led the outgoing state government in Brandenburg won 32 seat, coming in first, and the traditional conservative Christian Democrats ran fourth with 12 seats, a loss of 3.

This is the third and last German state election this year.  All have seen advances by both the right and left populists..  The AfD won Thuriniga and ran a close second in Saxony and Brandenburg.  The BSW has run third in all three states.

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/huge-success-for-populist-parties-in-brandenburg/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/21/how-migration-became-rallying-cry-german-far-left/

In the Czech Republic, the populist / nationalist anti-immigration ANO party topped the nine parliamentary parties winning regional government seats in a landslide while the most leftwing parties suffered major losses.  Traditional conservatives also gained.  ANO is led by Czech billionaire Andrej Babis who was nicknamed "the Czech Trump" when he was prime minister.

Of the 675 regional government seats, ANO came in a strong first place with 292 seats, a gain of 120 from the last election, while the traditional conservative Civic Democrats, who lead the current national government, ran second at 106 seats, a gain of 8.  The biggest losers in the election were the leftwing Pirate Party which lost 96 of the 99 seats it previously held, leaving it with 3, and Social Democrats which lost 21 or the 34 seats it previsouly held, leaving it with 13.  It is projected that ANO will gain control with allies of 10 of the Czech Republic's 13 regional governments.  A populist nationalist party to the right of ANO, Freedom and Direct Democracy, which advocates a referendum on leaving the EU and banning mosques gained 7 seats for a new total of 32, running fifth in the election.

Overall, in regional government races, parties of the populist nationalist right won 324 seats, while traditional right and center-right parties won 264 seats, and the left and center left won 48 seats.  Independents, local parties, and non-parliatmentary national parties won a total of 39 seats.

Elections were also held at the same time for 27 seats in the Czech Senate, with 5 seats achieiving a majority and 22 moving on to a runoff.  Of the five senators elected outright, ANO won two, the center-right Christian Democrats one, a right leaning independent one, and the Social Democrats one.  ANO won runoff slots in 19 of the 22 runoffs.

While ANO was expected to win, its margin was much larger than anticipated and is a strong sign for national parliamentary elections next year.  ANO also handily won the EU parliamentary election in the Czech Republic earlier this year.

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/babiss-sovereigntist-ano-wins-czech-regional-elections-in-a-landslide/

https://rmx.news/article/czechia-babis-reflects-on-recent-election-success-looks-ahead-to-key-vote-next-year/