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.
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