German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged parties to avoid collaborating with the far right on Monday, September 2, after the AfD made record gains in two regional elections, and his own coalition suffered a heavy defeat, one year before a general election.
In the former East German state of Thuringia, the anti-immigrant, anti-Islam AfD became the first far-right party to win a regional election since World War II, taking around 33% of the vote on Sunday. The AfD was headed for a close second place in neighboring Saxony.
Germany's top-selling daily newspaper Bild described the outcome as "a political earthquake."
Scholz, whose deeply unpopular three-party coalition received a defeat in both states, called the results "bitter" and "worrying." "The AfD is damaging Germany. It is weakening the economy, dividing society and ruining our country's reputation," he said. "All democratic parties are now called upon to form stable governments without right-wing extremists," he said in a message on Facebook.
Coalition governments are the norm in Germany at the federal and state levels, and mainstream parties have always ruled out collaboration with the far right. Yet AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said she believed the "undemocratic firewall" was untenable given the party's electoral success, while fellow leader Tino Chrupalla said there would be "no politics without the AfD."
The conservative CDU, the only centrist party to perform strongly on Sunday, was quick to dismiss the idea of teaming up with the AfD. "Voters know that we do not form coalitions with the AfD," said Carsten Linnemann, the general secretary of the conservative CDU.
The CDU only narrowly edged out the AfD with 32% of the vote in Saxony, and came second in Thuringia. The conservatives still hold hopes of leading the next government in Thuringia, with their lead candidate Mario Voigt appealing for a "reasonable government" in a coalition led by the CDU.
The AfD's controversial local leader, Björn Höcke, meanwhile declared that his party was the "people's party in Thuringia." "We need change and change will only come with the AfD," he said, hailing the "historic result." Höcke has often caused outrage with his outspoken statements and was fined twice this year for deliberately using a banned Nazi slogan.
Sahra Wagenknecht, who heads the far-left BSW, said her party "cannot work together" with Höcke and has long ruled out a coalition with the AfD. BSW, formed earlier this year as a breakaway from the ex-communist Die Linke party, secured vote shares in the teens in both regional polls and is seen as a key building block in any coalition.
BSW however has serious differences with the more established parties, complicating negotiations, including a dovish stance towards Russia and opposition to the planned stationing of US missiles in Germany.
Scholz's Social Democrats recorded meek results, scoring around 7% in Saxony and falling to 6% in Thuringia.
The chancellor's partners in a fractious coalition – the liberal FDP and the Greens – struggled even more. The FDP fell below the 5% threshold for seats in both elections, while in Saxony the Greens only scraped in.
The results were "nothing to celebrate," Social Democrats party chair Lars Klingbeil said, adding that the party had to be "better."
The run-up to the elections was dominated by a bitter debate over immigration stirred up by a suspected Islamist knife attack a few days before the vote. Opposition parties, including the AfD and the CDU, seized on the deadly stabbing in the western city of Solingen to criticize the government for its supposedly lax border regime.
The government has sought to respond to the alarm by announcing stricter knife controls and rules for migrants in Germany illegally.