‘A dark day for Germany is a dark day for Europe’: liberals react to far right success in German state election – as it happened

Summary of the day

The conservative Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, has expressed concern about the outcome of elections in the two German states, calling for faster asylum procedures outside the EU, a more effective returns policy and stricter controls.

AfD leaders demand inclusion in state coalition talks after election success

Saskia Esken, from the Social Democratic party (SPD), has insisted that “Olaf Scholz is our strong chancellor and he will be our strong candidate for chancellor.”

“We turned things around in the final months in the last national election, and we will succeed again this time,” she said, the Associated Press reported. “And I want to say very clearly that all the (coalition) parties, but in particular our two coalition partners, must take the motivation from this election result to end these public arguments and pull together.”

German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday urged parties to avoid collaborating with the far right, after the 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 the second world war, taking about 33% of the vote on Sunday.

The AfD was headed for a close second place in neighbouring Saxony.

Bild newspaper daily described the outcome as “a political earthquake”.

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.

But AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said she believed the “undemocratic firewall” was untenable given the party’s electoral success, while fellow leader Tino Chrupalla said there would be “no politics without the AfD”.

Here’s the updated seat distribution in Saxony.

The state election commission corrected the preliminary results.

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) said the results of the elections in Thuringia and Saxony are not only a signal for change in direction in the states, but also on the federal level.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU)’s Friedrich Merz congratulated his party’s candidates, writing that achieving their results under difficult circumstances is a great success.

Daniela Schwarzer, an executive board member at the Bertelsmann Stiftung, has an interesting analysis of the foreign policy dimension of yesterday’s state elections.

“There is a high chance that both regions will get a CDU led government,” she wrote.

“BSW has set out conditions for coalescing w/ the CDU in Thuringia or Saxony: Wagenknecht wants regional governments to support immeditate negotiations between Russia & Ukraine instead of delivering arms to Ukraine, and refuses the deployment more US medium-range missiles in Germany,” Schwarzer noted.

She added:

The influence of Länder governments on foreign & defence policy is arguably limited. And yet the effect of this strategic move of BSW may be huge: It may split the Christian Democrats, Germany’s largest opposition party and to date supporter of Ukraine, down the middle.

Here’s the seat allocation in Saxony, where the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) took the most seats, followed closely by the far right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

‘A dark day for Germany is a dark day for Europe’: European liberals react to German state elections

Similarly to countries like the United States, Germany’s 16 states have considerable powers.

While the federal government is responsible for foreign affairs and defence, states play a role in policymaking in areas ranging from education to policing and health care.

The states have their own parliaments and coalition governments.

Here’s an explainer from the German Bundestag:

The Federal Republic of Germany is a federal state made up of 16 constituent states – the Länder. Accordingly, there are federal laws that apply for the whole territory of the Federation, and Land laws that only have validity in the Land in question.

Land laws may not conflict with federal laws. Article 31 of the Basic Law states that “Federal law shall take precedence over Land law.” This is intended to ensure that, as far as possible, “equitable living conditions” prevail throughout the federal territory.

The legislative competencies of the Federation and the Länder are regulated in detail by the Basic Law. Articles 71 to 74 list the legislative powers of the Federation. In all other cases, the Länder are responsible.

Exclusive legislation

In the fields subject to the exclusive legislation of the Federation, the Länder only have the power to adopt legislation where they are expressly empowered to do so by a federal act.

The Federation holds exclusive legislative competence in the following fields: all foreign policy issues, defence, including the protection of the civil population, citizenship, currency and money, the unity of the customs and trading area and cooperation between the Federation and the Länder concerning criminal police work.

Concurrent legislation

In fields subject to concurrent legislation, the Länder have the right to adopt legislation provided and in so far as the Federation makes no use of its legislative powers in the same field. The Federation has the right to adopt legislation in these fields provided it is intended to establish equitable living conditions in the federal territory or maintain Germany’s legal and economic unity. Civil law, criminal law, the prison system, road traffic, the law of association and assembly, the law relating to the residence and establishment of foreign nationals, business law, consumer protection and the benefits granted to members of the public service are all among the fields subject to concurrent legislation.

Here is the seat distribution in the Thuringia state parliament following yesterday’s election.

The far right won the most seats.

‘The AfD is damaging Germany’, German chancellor says as far-right leads in Thuringia

Deborah Cole

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