German chancellor Olaf Scholz has described postwar Germany’s first far-right election victory on Sunday as “bitter”. The result raises fresh doubt about his ability to secure a second term in power in a year’s time.
The far-right Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) win in Thuringia – and near-win in Saxony – will complicate the task of finding ruling coalitions in the two eastern states, given all other parties refuse to work with them.
A year before the next federal elections, representatives of the three ruling coalition partners admitted on Monday that, even in states where they traditionally struggle, the results were a significant political setback.
In a written statement, Mr Scholz warned that Germany “cannot and must not get used to” far-right election victories and warned the AfD was “weakening the economy, dividing society and ruining our country’s reputation”.
“All democratic parties are now called upon to form stable governments without right-wing extremists,” said the Social Democratic Party (SPD) chancellor.
The results have revived speculation that the unpopular Mr Scholz, who is not party leader, could be replaced as SPD candidate in next year’s campaign by the minister for defence, Boris Pistorius, currently Germany’s most popular politician in polls.
The AfD, fresh from election victory in Thuringia and second place in Saxony, with 32.8 and 30.6 per cent of the vote respectively, called on Mr Scholz to “pack his bags”.
“Voters want new federal elections and that’s what we are preparing for,” said Dr Alice Weidel, AfD co-leader.
The opposition centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) attacked Berlin’s ruling coalition parties and said Mr Scholz is “the face of that failure”.
CDU federal leader Friedrich Merz insisted that his party’s ban on alliances with the AfD and the post-communist Left party still stand – but said it was up to local parties if they wanted to talk to the new left-right Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).
On its first election outing, the BSW secured six and 15 seats in the new Saxon and Thuringian parliaments respectively. Ms Wagenknecht said her party was open to talks but that “war and peace [in Ukraine] is such a dominant topic ... that we have to change the federal political debate”.
As CDU and BSW sound each other out, junior Scholz coalition partners in Berlin are reacting to election defeat.
Inside the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which crashed out of both state parliaments, a group of rebels has called on party leader Christian Lindner to either pull out of government or resign as party chair.
Mr Lindner conceded people “are sick and tired” of his coalition, but insisted it would remain in office.
