German Politics

Centre-right Christian Democrats dominate politics in Thuringia

June 2024: The far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) failed to be successful in any of the 17 run-off elections held in Thuringia (Thüringen) on 9 June. In the state capital Erfurt, the SPD incumbent mayor was defeated by Andreas Horn, his challenger from the centre-right CDU. Across the state, the Christian Democrats won 14 of the 17 second-round elections. SPD candidates won the district council elections in Gotha and Kyffhäuserkreis districts. In Jena, Lord Mayor Thomas Nitzsche (FDP) was re-elected.

 

Political parties

Christian Democrats (CDU), centre-right

Social Democrats (SPD), centre-left

Free Democrats (FDP), centrists liberals

Alternative for Germany (AfD), far-right

Free voters associations, conservative

 

Elected City Mayors
Erfurt

(Popl: 214,000)
Andreas Horn (CDU) elected mayor

Notes: Andreas Horn defeated the incumbent mayor from the SPD.

 

Eisenach

(Popl: 40,000)

Christoph Ihling (CDU)

Notes: Christoph Ihling succeeds Katja Wolf, who decided not to seek another term after she switched from the left-wing party Die Linke to the new populist party Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht.

 

Gera

(Popl: 94,000)

Kurt Dannenberg (CDU) elected mayor

Notes: Kurt Dannenberg defeated the independent incumbent mayor.

 

Gotha

(Popl: 47,000)

Knut Kreuch (SPD) elected mayor

Notes: The incumbent mayor won the run-off against an independent opponent

 

Jena

(Popl: 112,000)

Thomas Nitzsche (FDP) elected mayor

Notes: The incumbent mayor defeated his opponent from the Green Party.

 

Weimar

(Popl: 66,000)

Peter Kleine (CDU) elected mayor

Notes: Peter Kleine won the contest in the first round of voting.

 

Suhl

(Popl: 35,000)

André Knapp (CDU) elected mayor

Notes: André Knapp, the incumbent mayor was re-elected in the first round of voting.

 

 

Elected District Administrators

Altenburg (District)

Uwe Melzer (CDU)

Notes: Incumbent Uwe Melzer from the CDU won the run-off election for the district administrator position against AfD candidate Heiko Philipp.

 

Eichsfeld (District)

Marion Frant (CDU)

Notes: Marion Frant (CDU) is the new district administrator. She received 70% of votes cast. Her challenger Marcel König, who was nominated by the AfD, received 30%.

 

Gotha (District)

Onno Eckert (SPD)

Notes: Incumbent Onno Eckert, from the SPD, has been re-elected as district administrator.

 

Greiz (District)

Ulli Schäfer (CDU)

Notes: CDU candidate Ulli Schäfer won the run-off election for the position of district administrator.

 

Hildburghausen (District)

Sven Gregor (Free Voters)
Notes: Sven Gregor from the Free Voters won the run-off election for the office of district administrator.

Ilm (District)

Petra Enders (Independent)
Notes: In the run-off election, independent incumbent district administrator Petra Enders was re-elected.

Kyffhäuserkreis (District)
Antje Hochwind-Schneider (SPD)
Notes: In the run-off election incumbent Antje Hochwind-Schneider from the SPD won the election with 59% of the vote.

 

Saale-Holzland (District)

Johann Waschnewski (CDU)

Notes: CDU candidate Johann Waschnewski won the run-off election for the post of district administrator. He received 61% of the vote.

 

Sömmerda (District)

Christian Karl (CDU)

Notes: Christian Karl is the new district administrator. He won 60% of votes.

 

Unstrut-Hainich (District)

Thomas Ahke (Free Voters)

Notes: SPD district administrator Harald Zanker lost the battle for the post. The new district administrator is Thomas Ahke from the Free Voters. He received 57% in the run-off election

 

Wartburg (District)

Michael Brodführer (CDU

Notes: CDU candidate Michael Brodführer won the run-off election against his AfD opponent. Brodführer was elected to office with 63% of the vote.

 

Weimar (District)

Christiane Schmidt-Rose (CDU)

Notes: CDU incumbent Christiane Schmidt-Rose defended her position in the district council election in Weimarer Land.

​

 

The far-right misses local election targets in Eastern Germany

May 2024: Despite all fears and many predictions, the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) failed to become the strongest force in local elections in the East German state of Thuringia. The party, classified as extreme right-wing by German security services (Amt für Verfassungsschutz), did manage to come second in many places. However, its candidates will have to face run-off elections in two weeks, on 9 June 2024 and will then be up against democratic unity candidates. These are mostly candidates from the centre-right CDU (Christian Democrats).

 

The CDU was able to record election successes in several cities and thus defend its municipal strength. For example, in the state capital Erfurt, CDU candidate Andreas Horn beat the Social Democrat (SPD) incumbent mayor Andreas Bausewein into second place. Both will now go through to the run-off. In Weimar and Suhl, the CDU mayoral candidates achieved clear overall majorities in the first round of voting.

 

In Altenburg, Mayor André Neumann (photo) is beginning his second term in office. In the county of Weimar (Landkreis Weimar), the CDU candidate missed out on an absolute majority by 0.2 percentage points. In several regions, the CDU underwent a generational change. For example, the two longest-serving district councillors in Germany, Werner Henning (Eichsfeld) and Martina Schweinsburg (Greiz), did not run again for reasons of age.

 

The AfD struggled in the state’s five unitary cities (kreisfreie Städte) Erfurt, Weimar, Gera, Jena and Suhl. Run-off elections will be held in Gera, Erfurt and Jena without one of their candidates. In the case of Gera, this is a clear step backwards from the party's perspective: in the 2018 local elections, there was still a candidate for the run-off.

 

Mayoral elections in Thuringia’s cities

Erfurt (Popl: 214,000)

Incumbent Mayor Andreas Bausewein (SPD) 23%

Andreas Horn (CDU) 28%

 

Weimar (Popl: 66,000)

Incumbent Mayor Peter Kleine (CDU) 73%

 

Suhl (Popl: 35,000)

Incumbent Mayor André Knapp (CDU) 82%

 

Gera (Popl: 94,000)

Incumbent Mayor Julian Vonarb (Independent) 32%

Kurt Danneberg (CDU) 33%

 

Jena (Popl: 112,000)

Incumbent Mayor Thomas Nitzsche (FDP) 25%

Kathleen Lützendorf (Green) 15%

 

AfD candidates for Thuringia’s 13 directly elected district mayors (Landräte) are unlikely to succeed in the second round of voting. So far, the only district mayor post that was decided by an absolute majority in the first round of the elections went to the SPD, while a run-off vote is required for all twelve other posts up for election. Although AfD candidates made it to the second round in nine of these cases, they came second eight times. Only in the Altenburger Land district did AfD candidate Heiko Philipp receive the most votes with 33 per cent.

 

The centre-left SPD recorded some successes in the elections. For example, SPD candidate Peggy Greiser won in Schmalkalden-Meiningen against her only opponent, Ralf Liebaug from the CDU. In three other districts, SPD candidates achieved overall majorities in some cases or came close to it. The SPD incumbent mayor is also in the run-off in Erfurt.

 

The election result in the southern Thuringian district of Hildburghausen caused quite a stir. There, the nationally known neo-Nazi Tommy Frenck narrowly made it into the run-off, by beating the CDU candidate by a narrow margin. Hi second-round opponent, Sven Gregor, who ran for the Free Voters (Freie Wähler) received 42 per cent of the vote in the first round and must now be considered the favourite.

 

According to provisional results, the CDU and AfD were almost level-pecking in the elections for the district and city councils, with the CDU at 28 per cent of the state-wide vote and the AfD at 27 per cent. It should be noted that the AfD’s share of votes improved by almost ten percentage points compared to 2019, while the CDU kept its share of the vote largely stable. The Left Party, the SPD and the Greens, who form the state government in Thuringia, all suffered losses.

 

One day before the election, many thousands of people took to the streets across Thuringia in demonstrations for an open-minded Thuringia and against right-wing extremism. According to police reports, up to 2,000 people took part in a rally in Erfurt alone on Saturday.

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The second round of voting will take place on 9 June 2024, together the elections to the European parliament.

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