Is Thuringia the point Germany’s golden political summer turns to fall?
Germany may be hit by a serious case of autumn political blues or seasonal affective disorder come September 1 when voters go to the polls in Thuringia and Saxony.
The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has been polling well and data suggests the party could achieve its strongest ever showing in both states, as well as in Brandenburg three weeks later.
AfD’s case has been helped by a stabbing rampage in the western German city of Solingen — the main suspect is a Syrian asylum seeker. The tragic incident, which left three dead and injured eight, has served as kindling for the political fires being lit by Björn Höcke, AfD leader in Thuringia.
Mr Höcke, who’s been classed a “ confirmed rightwing extremist “ by Germany’s security services, is energising likely voters in his state by the centre-left government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz of wanting to “do away with German people” in favour of multiculturalism.
And as The Guardian’s Berlin correspondent Deborah Cole recently reported, Höcke fans say their biggest concern is not inflation or economic recession but “criminal foreigners”.
Opinion polls say that Mr Höcke’s party is headed for a landslide win of around 30 per cent. Ironic because Mr Höcke once said that it would be a “big problem” if Hitler was portrayed as the “absolute evil” in German political discourse. And this, in a country whose penal code prohibits publicly denying the Holocaust and disseminating Nazi propaganda, both off- and online.
Even so, Mr Höcke is aiming to become his party’s first-ever prime minister of a German state.
Might Thuringia be the point at which Germany’s golden political summer emphatically turns to fall?
Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com
