12/17/2023 7:45 pm (current 12/17/2023 7:45 pm)
Things continue to improve with the AfD ©APA/dpa
The right-wing populist “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) appoints the mayor of a city in Germany for the first time. AfD candidate Tim Lochner prevailed in the second round of mayoral elections in Pirna (Saxony) on Sunday against opponents from the CDU and Free Voters, as the city announced in the evening. A few days ago, the Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the state AfD as definitely right-wing extremist.
Lochner is an independent, but ran for the AfD. According to the preliminary final results, she received around 38.5 percent of the votes. Behind them are Kathrin Dollinger-Knuth (CDU) with around 31.4 percent and independent Ralf Thiele, who entered the race for Free Voters, with around 30.1 percent. Lochner and Thiele were also former members of the CDU. The city administration reported that voter turnout was 53.8 percent. In the first round of voting it was comparatively weak, with 50.4 percent.
Lochner – a carpenter and restorer by profession – had already dominated the first round of voting on November 26 in the city, which has around 40 thousand inhabitants. At that time he received almost 33 percent of the vote and was ahead of Thiele (23.2 percent) and Dollinger-Knuth (20.3 percent). Independent candidate André Liebscher (13.7) and Ralf Wätzig (SPD, supported by the Greens/almost 10 percent) did not run in the second round and supported the CDU candidate Dollinger-Knuth.
Before Pirna, AfD candidates had already won two important local political positions in Germany. In June, the AfD won a district election for the first time – with Robert Sesselmann in the Thuringian district of Sonneberg. In August of this year, Hannes Loth was elected the first mayor of a municipality in Germany – in Raguhn-Jeßnitz (Saxony-Anhalt).