A day after a far-right party took over a county administration for the first time, the German government stated on Monday that principles like tolerance and respect shape the nation and called for them to be respected.
In a runoff election held on Sunday, Alternative for Germany, which has drawn the attention of security agencies due to its links to radicals, triumphed. Sonneberg County is located approximately 180 kilometers (112 miles) east of Frankfurt.
While Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesperson declined to immediately address the results of the municipal election, he did stress the need for listening to the concerns of the public and having “civilized discussions.
“Steffen Hebestreit told reporters in Berlin that principles like justice, tolerance, decency, and respect shape our nation.
This has to be developed and often practiced. Anti-racism activists and others harshly denounced Robert Sesselmann’s triumph over a center-right opponent as the nominee for Alternative for Germany.
The head of the Jewish Community of Munich and Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch stated that the voters in Sonneberg had made “a dangerous decision,” but added that officials at the federal and state levels were equally to blame for the results.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was established ten years ago, and after launching an anti-immigration campaign in reaction to the inflow of migrants into Europe the previous two years, it made its debut appearance in parliament in 2017.
In a nation where the rise of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s is still a required course in schools, the party’s recent jump in national surveys, reaching between 18% and 20%, has alarmed mainstream parties.
After joining the state government of Thuringia in 1930, where Sonneberg is situated, the National Socialist Party of Adolf Hitler quickly established itself as a major political force.
Bodo Ramelow, the Left party’s candidate for governor of the state, claimed that the AfD’s victory in Sonneberg was evidence that far-right populism, which is prevalent in the United States, France, and other European nations, had also gained ground in Germany.
Three eastern states will conduct regional elections next year, including Thuringia.
Friedrich Merz of the center-right Christian Democrats, whose candidate lost to the AfD, said that Scholz’s federal government’s Green Party alienated voters by calling for stringent climate change regulations.
Merz stated that his party will concentrate its assaults on the Greens, mirroring the AfD’s approach. Meanwhile, Ricarda Lang, the co-leader of the Green Party, issued a warning against a “right-wing culture war.”
Because it’s obvious that the AfD still poses a threat to democracy, she added, “it will now be the responsibility of all democratic parties to prevent a normalization of the AfD.”
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