According to the first forecast, the parties of the federal government coalition took part in the provincial elections.
According to the first forecast prepared by the infratest dimap company on behalf of the ARD, the right-wing AfD reached 30.5 percent in Thuringia, which is an increase of 7.1 percent compared to 2019, and thus the clear winner of the election.
The CDU is the second strongest party with 24.5 percent (+2.8), while the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) reached 16 percent.
At the same time, the parties of the government coalition took part, the SPD narrowly crossed the five percent threshold with 7 percent (-1.2), while the Greens failed with four percent (-1.2) and the FDP with 1.3 percent (-3.7) into the provincial parliament.
The turnout was 73.5 percent.
In Saxony, the CDU led by Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer is still the strongest force. According to infratest dimap, it reached 31.5 percent (-0.6 percentage points).
With its top candidate Jörg Urban, the AfD won 2.5 percentage points compared to the previous provincial election and received thirty percent. BSW achieved twelve percent. According to the forecast, the SPD reached 8.5 percent, the Greens 5.5 percent. The Left Party is expected to leave the provincial parliament with four percent. He lost more than half of his votes compared to 2019.
Based on the first predictions, Carsten Linnemann, CDU's general secretary, called the CDU the last true people's party. As he said, the result is very good, even though the good results of AfD and BSW caused him concern.
However, considering the weak election results of the chancellor's party, this government should ask itself whether it is still doing politics for the people, he noted.
Linnemann also emphasized that the CDU will not enter into a coalition with the AfD under any circumstances. The party will remain calm and focus on national issues when forming a coalition.
AfD leader Alice Weidel called the first forecasts a historic success. The AfD became the strongest party in a provincial election for the first time, and also achieved a strong result in Saxony. As he said, the election was a punishment and a requiem for the traffic light coalition's policy.
At the same time, Weidel also emphasized that a stable coalition would not be possible without the AfD, that the "firewall" demanded by Linnemann would be anti-democratic and would not be appreciated by the voters.
The voters want the AfD to be part of a government, he declared. As he said, his party offers cooperation to the CDU in both federal states, and cooperation with the BSW is also conceivable, but he does not expect a willingness to cooperate here either.
Cover image: AfD thanked voters
Source: X/Alice Weidel
