Report: “With its program, the AfD will change things”: in eastern Germany, the extreme right seduces before the regional elections

Two regional elections are taking place on Sunday in eastern Germany, where the far right could reach 20% of the vote. In Pirna, a town in the Saxony region, the AfD has managed to establish its ideas.

Two regional elections are taking place in Saxony and Thuringia, in eastern Germany, on Sunday, September 1. In these far-right strongholds, the AfD could reach 20% and come out on top, according to the latest polls. After winning several town halls, the AfD is hoping to win its first region. The town of Pirna, near Dresden, in Saxony, with 40,000 inhabitants, is the first medium-sized municipality to be led by a mayor elected with the support of the far right.

With her arms full of groceries in the supermarket car park, Veronika, 66, made her choice a long time ago: the former nurse will vote for the far right. “Asylum seekers, refugees from Ukraine, they are treated better than us. We offer them everything : an apartment, a hairdresser, places in daycare, and they are even given money. It is unfair, and it must change,” Veronika justifies herself.

In his office overlooking the market square, Tim Lochner, the mayor elected under the colours of the AfD, is confident. Despite the recent scandals that have tarnished the party, he predicts victory. “Petrol is twice as expensive, food has doubled in the last five or six years and for energy it’s about the same. The government is still making the wrong choice. I haven’t seen any improvement in recent months and the AfD, with this program, is going to change things,” hopes the chosen one.

With 38.5% of the votes in the second round, the mayor was comfortably elected last December. But without the vote of Ralph for whom “They are Nazis who are endangering democracy. I was born and raised in the former East Germany and I know what the word dictatorship means, explains Raph. It seems that many have forgotten this or refuse to think about it. Democracy is a precious good, even if it does not always work as we would like.

In constituency number 50, Ralph Wätzig is running under the banner of the Social Democratic Party of Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor. The candidate is somewhat dismayed by the far-right’s lead in the polls. “We are not in a country on the brink of collapse and in which nothing works anymore. The peak of inflation is behind us, energy prices have returned to their pre-war level in Ukraine. Housing benefits have been increased, family allowances too,” he pleads.

“I have a hard time understanding where this fear, this disappointment and this anger come from.”

Ralph Wätzig, social democratic candidate

to franceinfo

If the AfD wins, it will have to find an ally to form a majority and govern the Saxony region. An alliance that all other parties have ruled out, so far.