Independent voters attack CDU after Pirna mayor election

An AfD candidate becomes mayor of a German city for the first time. The voters' decision is met with criticism. Meanwhile, the losing candidates blame each other.

, and Wendy Allen

2023 December 18 . 8:53 PM

2 min read

Election winner Tim Lochner (l) and the Saxon AfD leader Jörg Urban rejoice. Photo.aussiedlerbote.de

AfD mayor - Independent voters attack CDU after Pirna mayor election

The AfD 's first nationwide victory in a mayoral election has caused concern among other parties and associations. "The citizens of Pirna have decided. That is democracy, but the result is very worrying for us at the Association of German Cities," explained the President of the Association of German Cities, Markus Lewe, in Berlin on Monday. The result shows that there is a rift in society in many places.

"We are aware of the people in our cities who are tired of the crisis and are no longer willing or able to follow some political discussions. They must be our focus. They are the ones we have to take with us in the many changes we are facing," said Lewe. This will not succeed with parties that advocate extremist positions. "Extremist parties aim to divide society and stir up fear and insecurity."

Tim Lochner was the first AfD candidate to win a mayoral election in Germany on Sunday. The 53-year-old beat CDU candidate Kathrin Dollinger-Knuth and the independent Ralf Thiele, who ran for the Free Voters, in the second round of voting. Lochner himself is also independent and, by his own admission, does not want to join the AfD. The AfD state association in Saxony was recently classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a secure right-wing extremist organization.

Left-wing parliamentary group leader sees a "black day"

Saxony's Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) commented on the short message service X (formerly Twitter): "The AfD has won the mayor election in Pirna. Against two respectable competitors, the AfD candidate made further gains in the second round of voting. This will of the Pirna voters must be respected. The same goes for the decision of the other candidates to run again in the second round of voting..."

The head of the Left Party parliamentary group in the Saxon state parliament, Rico Gebhardt, saw a "black day" on election night, and not just for the city of Pirna. "Voters don't care whether a party is classified as right-wing extremist, they deliberately vote for it anyway," he wrote on X.

The International Auschwitz Committee recalled Pirna's history as a site of euthanasia crimes. In 1940 and 1941, the National Socialists murdered around 13,720 mainly mentally ill and mentally handicapped people in the Pirna-Sonnenstein nursing home. "Furthermore, this election is a bitter signal to all representatives of the democratic parties as to what will happen if they cannot agree on a common approach and leave the field to the AfD and its voters," explained Vice-President Christoph Heubner.

The Free Voters attacked the CDU on Monday. The CDU had not managed to get behind the Free Voters' candidate who came second after the first round of voting, said Thomas Weidinger, state leader of the Free Voters in Saxony. "Instead, by running the CDU candidate again, we have deliberately accepted the risk of playing the stool pigeon for the AfD."

The defeated CDU candidate Dollinger-Knuth saw things differently on election night. "Although we rallied almost all forces behind our political offer, the voters decided otherwise. Unfortunately, the independent voters decided to go it alone and thus paved the way for an AfD victory," she said. Both must be accepted.