AfD candidate wins OB election - party leadership looks ahead to 2024

Elections - AfD candidate wins OB election - party leadership looks ahead to 2024

Following the victory of its candidate in the mayoral election in Pirna, the AfD is heading into the 2024 election year with confidence. "We want to win here in Saxony, we want to win clearly, we want to get close to 40 percent. That's a steep uphill battle for our party for next year," Saxony's AfD leader Jörg Urban told the German Press Agency. The AfD has shown "that it can do it", that it can also win against the CDU and the Free Voters with a clear lead.

A new state parliament will be elected in Saxony on September 1, 2024. Local and European elections are already scheduled for June. Saxony is currently governed by a coalition of the CDU, Greens and SPD, headed by Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU). In a poll in Saxony published at the beginning of December, the AfD was on a par with the CDU with 33%.

Tim Lochner was the first AfD candidate to win a mayoral election in Germany on Sunday. The 53-year-old master carpenter and restorer prevailed in the second round of voting against opponents from the CDU and Free Voters. Lochner himself is not a party member, but stood for the AfD. According to the provisional results, he received 38.5 percent of the vote. He was followed by Kathrin Dollinger-Knuth (CDU) with 31.4 percent and the independent Ralf Thiele with 30.1 percent, who had entered the race for the Free Voters. Voter turnout was 53.8 percent.

AfD candidates have already won several offices

AfD federal leader Alice Weidel wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter): "Congratulations to Pirna!" AfD candidate Tim Lochner was elected the first AfD mayor there by a large margin over his rivals. Thanks to the many voters who made this historic result for the AfD possible!"

Weidel on X

The defeated candidate Dollinger-Knuth was also supported by the SPD, Greens and Left Party in the second round of voting. "Although we rallied almost all forces behind our political offer, the voters decided otherwise. Unfortunately, the Free Voters decided to go it alone and thus paved the way for an AfD victory," she said. Both have to be accepted.

Before Pirna, AfD candidates had already won two important local political offices in Germany. In June, the AfD won a district council election for the first time - with Robert Sesselmann in the district of Sonneberg in Thuringia. In August, Hannes Loth became the first mayor of a German municipality nationwide - in Raguhn-Jeßnitz (Saxony-Anhalt). The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution recently classified the Saxon AfD as a confirmed right-wing extremist movement. When asked whether he had a problem with running for the party in the town hall, Lochner again answered in the negative on Sunday evening.

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1. In the upcoming European election, the AfD will aim to replicate its Mayoral election success, as stated by their party leader, Jörg Urban.
2. Despite the AfD's victory in the Pirna Mayoral election, Saxony's current coalition government continues to be led by Michael Kretschmer (CDU), along with the Greens and SPD.
3. The victorious AfD Mayor in Pirna, Tim Lochner, is not an official party member, having stood for elections as an independent candidate, but strongly backed by the AfD.
4. In the Saxony municipalities, the CDU and the Free Voters are set to face strong competition from the AfD in the Mayoral election, following the success of Tim Lochner in Pirna.
5. The SPD, along with Greens and Left Party, had endorsed Kathrin Dollinger-Knuth in the second round of Pirna's Mayoral election, but she still fell short of the victory, expressing regret at the voters' decision.
6. The AfD's influence in Germany is not limited to the Pirna victory, as they had also clinched two significant local political offices in the past year – Robert Sesselmann in Sonneberg (Thuringia) and Hannes Loth in Raguhn-Jeßnitz (Saxony-Anhalt).
7. Despite the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifying the Saxon AfD as a confirmed right-wing extremist movement, Lochner, the new AfD Mayor in Pirna, expressed no reservations about representing the party in the town hall.
8. Following the landmark victory of the AfD in the Pirna Mayoral election, party leaders, such as Alice Weidel, are energized and optimistic as they look ahead to further elections.

Source: www.stern.de