Saxony: AfD candidate wins mayoral election for the first time

An AfD candidate has won a mayoral election in Germany for the first time. Tim Lochner (53) prevailed in the second round of voting on Sunday in Pirna, Saxony, against two opponents from the CDU and the Free Voters. Lochner himself is independent of a party, but ran for the AfD. According to the preliminary results, he received 38.5 percent of the vote, as the city announced on its website in the evening. Behind them are Kathrin Dollinger-Knuth (CDU) with 31.4 percent and the independent Ralf Thiele with 30.1 percent. He entered the race for the Free Voters. Lochner and Thiele were also former CDU members. Voter turnout was 53.8 percent – slightly higher than in the first round (50.4).

After the election, Lochner thanked his supporters and declared, “I promise I’ll see through the seven years.” He wants to approach the things that come his way with “calm and calmness.”

Classification as a confirmed right-wing extremist effort

The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony recently classified the Saxon AfD as a confirmed right-wing extremist effort. After his election on Sunday evening, Lochner answered the question whether he had a problem with moving to the town hall for the AfD after his election on Sunday evening. When asked about his previous statements about a “population exchange” – a conspiracy narrative widespread in right-wing circles – Lochner emphasized that he said this as a private person. He added: “If we have 38 percent of foreigners in primary schools and daycare centers in certain parts of the city, then for me that is an exchange of the local population.”

Before Pirna, AfD candidates had already won two important local political offices in Germany. In June, the AfD won a district election for the first time – with Robert Sesselmann in the Sonneberg district in Thuringia. In August, Hannes Loth was elected as the country’s first mayor of a German municipality – in Raguhn-Jeßnitz (Saxony-Anhalt).

In view of the election in Pirna, the Saxon AfD leader Jörg Urban spoke of a strong template for next year’s elections. In the state elections in September, the AfD wants to reach the 40 percent mark, said Urban. The mayoral election in Pirna shows “that it can be done”.

A coalition of the CDU, the Greens and the SPD governs Saxony

A coalition of the CDU, the Greens and the SPD currently governs Saxony, with Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) at the helm. In a survey published at the beginning of December, the AfD was tied with the CDU at 33 percent.

Lochner has been sitting on the city council of the city in Saxon Switzerland, which has around 40,000 inhabitants, for years. He had already taken part in the mayoral election in Pirna in 2017, but at the time he was left behind with 32.9 percent of the vote against incumbent Hanke. Contact with the AfD came about through the city council faction, said the master carpenter when asked before his election as mayor. “I was approached, it worked, and I was chosen unanimously.” However, Lochner rules out membership in the AfD. “I was previously a member of the CDU but returned the party register. Now I no longer want to be a party member.”

Lochner – a carpenter and restorer by profession – had already dominated the first round of voting on November 26th. At that time he received 32.9 percent of the votes and was ahead of Thiele (23.2 percent) and Dollinger-Knuth (20.3). The independent candidate André Liebscher (13.7) and Ralf Wätzig (SPD, supported by the Greens/almost 10 percent) did not run in the second round and supported the CDU candidate Dollinger-Knuth. Lochner is the successor to Klaus-Peter Hanke (independent), who no longer stood for mayoral election.