German populists gain ground in regional elections in Thuringia and Saxony

As predicted, right-wing and left-wing populists achieved high results in Sunday's elections to state parliaments in two federal states in eastern Germany. In Thuringia, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won, while in Saxony, right-wing populists were defeated by the Christian Democrats (CDU).

Bloomberg comments that Chancellor Olaf Scholz's ruling coalition was crushed in two regional elections on Sunday in eastern Germany.

According to the Infratest dimap forecast for ARD, in Thuringia, AfD won, securing 30.5 percent of the votes and outpacing CDU, which received 24.5 percent of the voters' support. Third place went to the radically left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), with 16 percent.

The Left Party received 12.5 percent of the votes, and the SPD secured 7 percent. The remaining parties did not surpass the electoral threshold of 5 percent; the Greens obtained 4 percent, FDP 1.3 percent, and other parties collected 4.2 percent of the votes.

According to the forecast, most deputies in the Thuringian parliament, which will consist of 88 members, will be from the AfD, with 30 seats. CDU will have 24 deputies, and BSW will have 15. The Left is entitled to 12 seats, and the SPD will have 7.

The exit poll forecast for ZDF also indicates AfD's victory in Thuringia. According to this survey, AfD, led by Bjoern Hoecke, received 33.5 percent and came ahead of CDU, which got 24.5 percent of the vote. The following places went to BSW (14.5 percent), The Left (11.5 percent), and SPD (6.5 percent).

According to preliminary estimates, 74 percent of eligible voters participated in the Thuringian state parliament elections.

Meanwhile, in Saxony, according to an exit poll, CDU obtained 31.5 percent of the votes, and AfD was just behind with 30 percent, while BSW received 12 percent of the votes.

Thus, CDU once again had very poor results in Saxony. The 2019 state parliament elections brought the worst result for the Christian Democrats since 1990 at 32.1 percent. The main CDU candidate, Michael Kretschmer, has been the head of the Saxony government since 2017. Until 2019, he governed with the SPD, and since 2019, with the SPD and the Greens.

Meanwhile, AfD once again emerged stronger from the elections in this state. The party's popularity has been growing since 2014, and in 2019, it garnered 27.5 percent of the votes in Saxony.

BSW received 12 percent of the votes on Sunday and will, for the first time, be represented in the 120-member Saxon parliament.

According to the forecast, SPD obtained 8.5 percent. In 2019, it already had a very weak result of 7.7 percent and was only the fifth party in the state parliament after CDU, AfD, The Left, and the Greens. It was the worst result since 1990, although the Social Democrats traditionally are not as strong in this federal state - emphasizes the Tagesschau portal.

According to the exit poll, the Greens will enter the Saxon parliament with 5.5 percent. In 2019, they received 8.6 percent and formed a coalition with CDU and SPD.

The Left Party received 4 percent, which is "another defeat" - notes Tagesschau. The newly founded Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance likely took significant votes from this party. In 2019, the traditionally strong Left had 10.4 percent of support.

According to the ZDF forecast, the votes in Saxony were distributed as follows: CDU—31.9 percent, AfD—31.3 percent, BSW—11.6 percent, SPD—7.8 percent, Greens—5.2 percent, The Left—4.5 percent, and Others—7.7 percent.

The voter turnout in Saxony was 73.5 percent.