The far-right Alternative for Germany is set to make gains in both states, although most other major parties have ruled out collaboration with it.
In Hesse – home to Frankfurt, Germany’s financial hub – dissatisfaction with Germany’s federal government threatens to deliver a blow to Scholz’s coalition. The regional election will not directly affect federal politics, although a lack of support for Scholz’s SPD-led government in Hesse could be a worrying signal ahead of the country’s next federal election.
The Minister-President of Bavaria, Markus Söder, is hoping to hold onto his current governing coalition of the CSU and the right-wing Free Voters in Sunday’s crunch election. The AfD ran in Bavaria for the first time in the last state elections in 2018, when it came in fourth with 10% of the vote. The result was widely viewed as a humiliation for the CSU, which lost its absolute majority, and allowed the AfD to muscle into Bavaria’s state government.
Backlash against the far-right party has been palpable in the days leading up to the election, however, with tens of thousands taking to the streets of Bavarian capital Munich on Wednesday to protest against it. She continued: “The borders are open and unprotected, the number of illegal border crossings is at a record high… In Bavaria, we want not only an upper limit, but also regulated and legally compliant repatriation.”
The party found itself at the center of an antisemitism row in the lead-up to Sunday’s election. Leader Hubert Aiwanger, who also serves as Bavaria’s economy minister, was accused of far-right sympathies following a report first published in Germany’s Süddeutesche Zeitung newspaper that alleged he had distributed leaflets mocking victims of the Holocaust in his school days. Aiwanger insists it has failed to diminish support for his party.
“We are not a protest party; we prevent citizens from becoming protest voters because we recognize and solve their problems on the ground,” he claimed. That position was slammed by members of Chancellor Scholz’s ruling SPD coalition, including Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who accused the Bavarian leader of damaging Germany’s reputation abroad.
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