The far-right party "Alternative for Germany" (AzG) with its first victory in regional elections, makes headlines in the "Financial Times".
AzG won the elections in the eastern German province of Thuringia, making it the first time in the country's post-war history that a far-right party secured victory in a regional vote, the British publication points out.
According to the preliminary results, the AZG collected 32.8 percent of the votes in Thuringia, ahead of all other parties. The center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is in second place with 23.6 percent.
In the neighboring state of Saxony, public broadcaster Cet De Eff's forecasts give the two parties almost the same result, with the CDU predicted to win 31.9 percent and the AWG to come in second with 30.6 percent.
AzG co-chairman Tino Krupala described the party's result in Thuringia as “sensational”.
„One thing is clear: the will of the voters is for political change, both in Saxony and in Thuringia,” he said, adding: „If you want to do stable politics, you won't be able to do it without АзГ“.
The results of the vote are disastrous for the parties of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's triple coalition, with predictions that the Social Democrats, the "Greens" and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) will collapse to single-digit results in both provinces.
In Thuringia, the German Social Democratic Party (GSDP) achieved its worst regional election result in Germany's post-war history, receiving just 6.1 percent.
The results reflect growing disenchantment in East Germany with the government, which many attribute to high inflation, economic stagnation, rising energy costs and constant political infighting, notes the Financial Times.
They also show how voters are increasingly abandoning centrist parties in favor of populist formations on the political fringes.
The co-chairman of the party "The Greens" Omid Nuripour described the election as a “turning point”.
„People from the cultural world, people with immigrant roots, people who go to gay parades are really scared,” Nouripour said, adding: “We have to stand behind them and protect democracy.”
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AzG is not the only beneficiary of the anger of local residents: they also voted en masse for a new far-left party - "Sarah Wagenknecht's Alliance" (ASV), which won 15.8 percent of the vote in Thuringia and, according to Cet De Ef forecasts, will win 11.8 percent in Saxony.
Voters were drawn to both the AZG and the ASA because of their opposition to the war in Ukraine. Both parties sharply criticized German arms supplies to Kiev, as well as Western sanctions against Russia, and called for talks to end hostilities, the British daily said.
Election results show that 34 years after German reunification, the majority of people in the two provinces of the former communist eastern part of the country are deeply disillusioned with the main parties at the center and with the way Germany is governed, notes the "Financial Times" ;.
Despite its impressive victory in Thuringia, the A&G will probably not be able to form a government there, as no other party will form a coalition with it, it will not have the parliamentary majority needed to govern.
AzG, which was founded 11 years ago by economists angered by the Eurozone bailouts, has become a hard-line, historically revisionist nationalist party that strongly opposes immigration.
The German domestic intelligence agency has designated the party's local branches in Saxony and Thuringia as “right-wing extremists”.
In Thuringia, the party is led by Björn Höcke, an ethno-nationalist who has been fined twice by local courts this year for using banned Nazi slogans in speeches to supporters.
Nevertheless, it may prove difficult to form viable coalitions without A&G. In order for the CDU to govern in Thuringia, for example, it may have to form a coalition with the ASD, an option that would be difficult for many in the center-right party to swallow, the British newspaper points out.
Wagenknecht, a former communist who is considered by many to be an apologist for Russian President Vladimir Putin, has set a change in Germany's policy towards Ukraine as a precondition for coalition talks.
She said her voters want to see a “different German foreign policy”.
„They want to achieve more peace, more diplomacy and this is our condition for (entering) government,” she said on Cet De Ef television.
This has outraged the CDU, which staunchly supports Ukraine and is pushing the Scholz government, which is already Kiev's second-largest provider of military aid after the US, to deliver even more weapons.
Höcke took a similar position to Wagenknecht, saying in his campaign speeches that the A3G was against Germany “being drawn into a war with Russia by some crazy Western elites”.
However, it may even be impossible for the CDU to form a government with the ASD. The Cet De Eff analysis showed that even a tripartite coalition between the CDU, ASD and the Social Democrats would have one seat short of a majority in Thuringia's 90-seat parliament, notes the "Financial Times".
The disastrous performance of the three parties in Scholz's coalition - GSDP, "The Greens" and the Liberals - has led to speculation that one of them may quit the government, triggering an early election.
According to the experts, however, such a result is unlikely. All three parties have performed so poorly nationally that they are unwilling to face the verdict of voters before the next scheduled general election in the fall of 2025.
Scholz is calling on German parties to kick the AZG out of government after the far-right party's landslide victory in regional elections, the Guardian headlined.
Germany's chancellor called on the main parties to exclude "right-wing extremists" after preliminary results showed the far-right AzG party topped a regional election and a new populist force on the left established itself in the country's political landscape. Scholz called the results “painful“ and “alarming“.
„Our country cannot and should not get used to this. A3D damages Germany. It weakens the economy, divides society and ruins the reputation of our country”, Scholz said, adding that the worst predictions that his center-left Social Democrats (GSDP) might be knocked out of a provincial parliament for the first time have not come true.< /p>
„This is a historic success for us. For the first time, we became the strongest party in an election in a given province. This is a requiem for this (tripartite) coalition,”, said the co-chair of the A&G, Alice Weidel.
AzG won its first mayoral and regional posts last year, but has never entered state government. The remaining, democratic parties promised to maintain a “protective wall” of opposing cooperation with A3D, keeping it away from power, the "Guardian" points out.
The far right is expected to win an election in a German province for the first time since World War II, says a headline in the "Washington Post".
Deemed an extremist organization by the domestic intelligence service and investigated by national authorities for Islamophobia and radical anti-immigrant positions, the A&G managed to overcome deep-rooted taboos on nationalist discourse in Germany, the American publication points out.
Sarah Wagenknecht's Alliance, a far-left pro-Russian populist party, also made a significant breakthrough, getting double-digit results in both provinces just eight months after its founding. This result heralds new challenges for Scholz, whose coalition partners are collapsing in national polls amid multiple crises, notes the Washington Post.
If it fails to attract a coalition partner, AZG will not be able to govern in either province. However, the party can still gain significant rights in the two regional parliaments. Initial forecasts suggest that A3D could win more than a third of the seats, which would give the party special rights as a “blocking minority” and will allow her to veto certain decisions, such as the appointment of judges and amendments to provincial constitutions, notes the US daily.
Representation of the far right in Thuringia and Saxony further shakes Olaf Scholz's coalition, writes a headline in "Mond".
Unsurprisingly, the far-right party AzG was the big winner in the regional elections held yesterday in Thuringia and Saxony, in the eastern part of Germany. Not surprisingly, the three parties in Olaf Scholz's coalition were severely penalized. Not surprisingly, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) performed quite well, which, a year before the parliamentary elections on September 28, 2025, is a serious blow for the Social Democrat chancellor, who intends to run for a second term, the French publication points out.
The big losers in this election - marked by a voter turnout of almost 75 percent, up 8 percentage points from the 2019 election - are the parties of the triple coalition that has been in power in Germany since 2021. this way, notes "Mond". And while the GSDP and the "Greens" perform relatively well, the FDP's results are truly disastrous - already absent from the Saxon parliament since 2014, this time it was also kicked out of the Thuringian parliament, where it received just 1 percent of the vote.