Erfurt, Dresden | Today you are voting for the states of Thuringia and Saxony. Many polls predict strong election results for the right-wing AfD party in both states. The newly founded BSW could also do well. Only the CDU was still relevant in the polls as an opponent for both parties. Some of the traffic light parties even have to fear for their place in the state parliament or, like the FDP, will no longer achieve this.
Report-K's coverage of the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony
Report-K offers a live report throughout the day and will report continuously on the elections and votes in the elections from 6 p.m.
Incidents at or in polling stations – voter turnout at midday
13:51 > The elections in the federal states of Thuringia and Saxony have been running for around 6 hours. Citizens can still cast their votes until 6 p.m. By 12 p.m., around 32 percent of eligible voters in Thuringia had cast their votes, a similar number to 2019. However, these statistics do not include postal voters. In Saxony, there is a high voter turnout. Here, too, postal voters are not taken into account. At 12 p.m., voter turnout at the ballot box in Saxony was 25.8 percent; in 2019, this figure was 16.9 percent.
In Gera, a man entered a polling station wearing a T-shirt with the AfD logo. This is not permitted, as political campaign advertising is prohibited in or near polling stations. The local election officer asked the man to take off his T-shirt. The man complied with this request. However, he made threats as he left the polling station. In addition, graffiti reading “Höcke is a Nazi” appeared near polling stations in Erfurt during the night. Investigations have been launched.
Polling stations open
8.15 am > The polling stations in Saxony and Thuringia have been open since 8 a.m. for the state elections there. The ballots are attracting unusually high interest nationwide because a shift to the right towards the AfD is currently expected, while on the other hand, the “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance” (BSW) could be a player who could join the government straight away.
In Saxony, the ruling CDU of Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer is ahead in the polls with around 30 to 33 percent and could even slightly improve on its result from the last election five years ago (32.1 percent). The AfD in Saxony is polling at 30 to 31 percent and should therefore continue to gain compared to 2019 and the 27.5 percent achieved then, but could also become the strongest force. The BSW is seen at 11 to 15 percent in Saxony. The SPD (6 to 7 percent) and the Greens (5 to 6 percent) are only just about to get over the 5 percent hurdle, the Left is polled at 3 to 4 percent and will probably be thrown out of the state parliament after 20 years, the FDP is not measurable at all.
The current coalition of CDU, Greens and SPD could possibly continue with a narrow majority, otherwise the BSW could come into play. Michael Kretschmer can certainly have some hope of remaining in office.
In Thuringia, however, the AfD is polling at 29 to 30 percent and will therefore probably be the strongest force. Because nobody wants to form a coalition with them, it will be particularly exciting to see who comes second. In the polls, the CDU with Mario Voigt is polling at 21 to 23 percent, ahead of the BSW, which is polling at 17 to 20 percent. But surprises cannot be ruled out here either.
The current Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow will have great difficulty remaining in office or even continuing the current minority government with the SPD and the Greens. His Left Party is only getting 13 to 14 percent in the polls, less than half as much as five years ago (31.0 percent). The SPD is at 6 to 7 percent in Thuringia and the Greens are at risk of being thrown out of the state parliament with 3 to 4 percent. The same fate will probably befall the FDP, which is also barely measurable in Thuringia.
Historian Löw criticizes date for state elections
The historian Peter Oliver Loew criticizes the election date for the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia on the 85th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland in 1939.
The director of the German Polish Institute told the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” (Sunday editions): “Whoever thought it was a good idea to hold elections on September 1st did not have a good sense of history.”
With regard to the AfD, which the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified as “certainly right-wing extremist” in both countries, Löw said: “This can lead to very bad associations if a party whose relationship to the Nazi era is anything but clear wins in Dresden and Erfurt.”
| red, With material from dts news agency |
