Scholz blamed for far-right local election win in eastern Germany

Alternative for Germany sees its first district administration leader elected in rural Sonneberg

The AfD's Robert Sesselmann, centre, celebrates with senior party figures after winning a district election in Thuringia. AFP

Olaf Scholz’s government in Germany has “disappointed the hopes” of voters and pushed them rightwards, one of his party's MPs said on Monday after a historic nationalist win at local elections.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will run a district for the first time after its candidate Robert Sesselmann's victory in Sonneberg on Sunday, which once again turned the spotlight on the far right’s stronghold in the former East Germany.

The result was described as a warning sign ahead of three state votes in the east next year, in which AfD is eyeing victories that would cause a sensation in German politics.

Sunday’s result came amid a sustained polling bounce for the far right that has seen AfD leapfrog the Greens and overtake Mr Scholz’s Social Democrats to place second in some polls.

AfD’s resurgence has been blamed on frustration with Mr Scholz’s government on issues such as energy and the cost of living, as well as a failure by the centre-right Christian Democrats to offer a convincing alternative.

“In 2021 the east went red in many places and helped the Social Democrats and Olaf Scholz to the chancellorship,” one centre-left MP in the region, Erik von Malottki, said.

“The truth is: we have disappointed their hopes. The increase in the minimum wage disappeared through inflation. Between war, climate change and debt limits there is barely any room left for social policy.”

Another Social Democrat in parliament, Bernhard Daldrup, described the result in Sonneberg as a “dam breach” and called on the mainstream to get “down from the stands and into the democratic arena”.

A jubilant AfD, often described as undemocratic by rival parties, thanked voters in the district for “making history” by giving the party its highest ever elected office.

“Democracy ends for some people when democratic results do not meet their expectations,” it said.

Fringe parties have often prospered in the former East, where the mainstream has fewer historical roots, immigration is a more recent phenomenon and economic hardship remains higher even 33 years after reunification.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition has been under strain over a plan to phase out gas boilers. AP

AfD argues that immigration is too high, questions the science of climate change and portrays go-green policies as hitting ordinary voters. It has positioned itself as the party of lockdown and vaccine sceptics during the pandemic.

Far-right rhetoric touches a particular nerve in Germany, and the head of the country’s Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, described Sunday’s result as “deeply concerning”.

AfD’s rise has led to blame being traded between Mr Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens – who have overseen a contentious clean heating push – and the opposition Christian Democrats, who have not cashed in on the discontent.

Johannes Hillje, a political consultant who has run campaigns for environmentalist candidates, said Mr Scholz’s often-criticised, man-of-few-words communication style was partly to blame.

“His approach is that the results of his policies should replace explanations. But that works least well for long-term projects such as the heating switch, where there are initial costs and the benefits come later,” he told German television.

Founded in 2013, AfD first entered parliament four years later amid a backlash against the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees under Angela Merkel’s government.

It lost ground and came fifth at the 2021 election, which led to Mr Scholz taking power, but is now regularly polling close to 20 per cent, its highest ever level of support.

Although mainstream parties refuse to co-operate, there is no precedent for the AfD coming first in an election as it is hoping to do in eastern Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia next year.

Such a result could force major parties into unwieldy coalitions to keep the AfD out of power or else break a taboo by running a minority government tolerated by the far right.