Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party hoped for more gains in the ex-communist east yesterday, when voters went to the polls in the state of Thuringia, even as the party came under pressure in the wake of a deadly shooting at a synagogue.
While popular Thuringia Premier Bodo Ramelow of the far-left Die Linke party was expected to retain the top spot, one of the AfD’s most radical figures was leading its battle for second place with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats (CDU).
The campaign has been marked by anger, threats and bitter recriminations, with CDU candidate Mike Mohring labeling the AfD’s local leader, the nationalist hardliner Bjoern Hoecke, a “Nazi.”
Photo: AFP
As in other parts of east Germany, which is marking the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago, the anti-immigrant AfD expected strong gains, with polls suggesting it would at least double the 10.6 percent it scored in 2014.
However, opinion surveys suggested support for the AfD has softened slightly in the wake of an Oct. 9 attack in the eastern city of Halle, in which a suspected neo-Nazi shot dead two people, having tried and failed to storm a packed synagogue on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.
A poll on Thursday by public broadcaster ZDF gave Die Linke 28 percent, followed by the CDU at 26 percent and the AfD at 21 percent, with all other groups scoring below 10 percent.
With a population of just more than 2 million people, and a similar agreement between parties not to govern with the AfD, Thuringia’s election was unlikely to cause any political earthquakes in Berlin.
However, the vote is being closely watched as a snapshot of the mood in the AfD heartland, especially given the role of Hoecke, a former history teacher considered extreme even within the AfD.
UMBRIA VOTE
Italians yesterday headed to the polls in Umbria for a regional election heralded as a key test for both the young left-leaning government and a zealous new right-wing opposition alliance.
Firebrand Matteo Salvini was determined to wrest the region from the left, which has governed it for 70 years, by capitalizing on a health scandal and biting economic crisis.
“Never before has Umbria, with its 884,000 inhabitants, been such an important thermometer for national politics,” the Sole 24 Ore daily said in the run-up to the vote.
Salvini collapsed Italy’s previous government two months ago in a failed bid to spark a parliamentary election that the then-Italian deputy prime minister hoped to win.
However, he was thwarted by an unexpected tie-up between former foes, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and center-left Democratic Party (PD).
Salvini has since channeled all his energies into a return to power, allying his anti-immigrant League with the smaller, far-right Brothers of Italy, and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia.
The M5S and PD believe running together locally is the only way to stop the right from taking not only Umbria, but also key regions such as the left-wing heartland of Emilia-Romagna, which votes early next year.
“If the first experiment of the PD-M5S alliance ends with a League triumph ... someone at Palazzo Chigi [the prime minister’s office] should ask themselves why,” Salvini said at a campaign rally last week.
Should the right win, the 46-year-old could “attempt the ascent to Palazzo Chigi, winning one region after another,” the Sole 24 Ore said.
“A defeat, however, would sting: It would mean he had made the wrong moves from August 8 [when he toppled the government] onward,” it said.
The latest polls put the right’s candidate, Donatella Tesei, ahead with 48 to 52 percent, compared with 41 to 45 percent for PD-M5S candidate Vincenzo Bianconi.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese