A far-right German political party that has had leaders sanctioned for speaking well of Nazis is close to winning two state elections.
Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is running a pro-Russia, anti-immigration campaign to secure the spots in the formerly communist eastern Germany, is ahead in several polls and expected to win about 30% of Sunday’s vote.
The party is eyeing seats in Saxony and Thuringia, home to around 4.1 million and 2.1 million people respectively, where the people have been vocal about their dissatisfaction with the sitting Social Democratic Party of Germany.
Their main concerns center around Russia’s war with Ukraine, slow economic growth, the transition to green energy and a renewed debate about migration sparked by a recent terror attack –– the latter of which the AfD has latched on to.
National AfD leader, Alice Weidel said the sitting Christian Democratic Union party in Saxony was to blame for the knifing at a music festival last week that left three dead and several others injured.
The attack, carried out by a suspected extremist from Syria, was a result of the CDU’s “policy of uncontrolled mass immigration,” Weidal said.
AfD has also tapped into high anti-immigration sentiment in the region, with one campaign poster in Thuringia promising “summer, sun, remigration” and depicting a plane with the logo “Deportation-Hansa.”
The party also staunchly denies climate change and supports Russia in its war against Ukraine, even flying posters combining the German and Russian flags declaring that “Peace is Everything!”
Several AfD party leaders have been punished for apparent Nazi support.
Top candidate Maximilian Krah was forced to withdraw from campaigning in May after telling an Italian newspaper that members of the Nazi SS were “not all criminals,” NBC News reported.
Another leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, was fined twice this year by German courts for using the Nazi-era slogan “Everything for Germany” at two AfD events in recent years.
Leftist groups are desperately trying to sway public favor away from the AfD, but have been polling poorly in the leadup to the election.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party of Germany recently blamed the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war for the dwindling public support — saying that “gun smoke from the battlefield” is masking the successes of his government.
With Post Wires
