German Chancellor Olaf Scholz yesterday urged parties to avoid collaborating with the far right, after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) made record gains in two regional polls and his own coalition suffered a heavy defeat a year before a general election.
In the former East German state of Thuringia, the anti-immigrant, anti-Islam AfD became the first far-right party to win a regional election since World War II, taking about 33 percent of the vote on Sunday. The AfD was headed for a close second place in Saxony.
The Bild daily described the outcome as “a political earthquake.”
Photo: Reuters
Scholz, whose deeply unpopular three-party coalition received a slapdown in both states, called the results “bitter” and “worrying.”
“The AfD is damaging Germany. It is weakening the economy, dividing society and ruining our country’s reputation,” he said.
“All democratic parties are now called upon to form stable governments without right-wing extremists,” he said in a message on Facebook.
Coalition governments are the norm in Germany at federal and state level, and mainstream parties have always ruled out collaboration with the far right.
However, AfD coleader Alice Weidel said she believed the “undemocratic firewall” was untenable given the party’s electoral success, while fellow leader, Tino Chrupalla, said that there would be “no politics without the AfD.”
The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the only centrist party to perform strongly on Sunday, was quick to dismiss the idea of teaming up with the AfD.
“Voters know that we do not form coalitions with the AfD,” CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann said.
The CDU only narrowly edged out the AfD with 32 percent of the vote in Saxony, and came second in Thuringia.
The conservatives still hold hopes of leading the next government in Thuringia, with their lead candidate, Mario Voigt, appealing for a “reasonable government” in a coalition led by the CDU.
The AfD’s controversial local leader, Bjoern Hoecke, said that his party was the “people’s party in Thuringia.”
“We need change and change will only come with the AfD,” he said, hailing the “historic result.”
Hoecke has often caused outrage with his outspoken statements and was fined twice this year for deliberately using a banned Nazi slogan.
Sahra Wagenknecht, who heads the far-left BSW, said her party “cannot work together” with Hoecke and has long ruled out a coalition with the AfD.
BSW, formed earlier this year as a breakaway from the ex-communist Linke party, secured vote shares in the teens in both regional polls and is seen as a key building block in any coalition.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS