Germany’s far-right AfD party becomes main opposition in key states

By Anadolu staff

BERLIN (AA) - Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) made huge gains in Sunday’s regional elections to become the main opposition party in the federal states of Hesse and Bavaria.

According to the preliminary official results, the anti-immigrant AfD managed to win 18.4% of the vote in the central state of Hesse and became the second-strongest party in the parliament. It has been the best-ever result for the far-right party in a western state since its foundation in 2013.

In the southeastern state of Bavaria, the AfD increased its vote share from 10.2% to 14.6% and came in third after the ruling Christian Social Union (37%) and its coalition partner Free Voters (15.8%).

Sunday’s regional elections were widely seen as a barometer of what the voters think about Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s liberal-left coalition government.

Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) got its worst-ever result in Bavaria with just 8.4% of the vote, his coalition partner the Greens garnered 14.4% of the vote, down more than 3 percentage points.

Their junior coalition partner Free Democrats (FDP) took the worst hit with 3% and missed the 5% threshold needed to enter the state parliament.

- Hesse elections

In the central state of Hesse, the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came first by securing 34.6% of the vote. The party, however, could not win enough votes to govern alone.

The Social Democrats could only win 15.1%, and it was their worst result in this state since the end of World War II.

The pro-environment Greens won 14.8%, down from 19.8% five years ago.

The Free Democrats were down 2.5 percentage points, and only marginally above the 5% threshold to enter the state parliament.

According to an opinion poll by public broadcaster ARD, the migration crisis was among the key issues that impacted the voting decision.

Some 80% of the respondents said Germany needs a new asylum and refugee policy to reduce the number of migrants arriving in the country.