Far-right party wins first state election in Germany since World War II

A far-right party in Germany won a state election on Sunday for the first time since World War II, dealing a blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The party, Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won a majority of the vote in Thuringia, coming in ahead of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and becoming the first far-right party to win a state election after the second World War.

In Thuringia, AfD earned 32.8 percent of the vote compared to CDU’s 23.6 percent.

Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) party earned just 6.1 percent of the vote, according to pollster Forschungsgruppe Wahlen.

Other parties say they won’t join AfD, but the party’s strength, as seen in this election, will make it difficult to form new state governments and force other parties to join coalitions, The Associated Press reported.

The results sound alarm bells for Scholz with just a year to go before Germany’s national election. He may have to be tougher on immigration and talk more about the Russia-Ukraine war, issues that were dominant in this campaign, according to Reuters.