In the Saale-Orla district in eastern Thuringia, the CDU candidate prevailed against the AfD candidate. According to political scientist Oppelland, this could also be due to the anti-right demonstrations.
From the perspective of experts, the AfD defeat in a district election in Thuringia can also be attributed to the nationwide demonstrations of the past few days. The CDU election winner was able to win over almost all voters in the runoff election who had previously voted for the SPD or Left candidates, said Erfurt political scientist André Brodocz to the dpa. “The fact that the right-wing extremist threat to democracy should be prevented together, as the nationwide demonstrations demanded as a basic democratic consensus, certainly motivated this group to vote for the CDU this time.”
The CDU candidate Christian Herrgott prevailed on Sunday in a runoff election in the Saale-Orla district in eastern Thuringia against AfD man Uwe Thrum. After the first round, Thrum was clearly ahead of God, the SPD and Left candidates were far behind. In Germany, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets against right-wing extremism in recent weeks.
Political scientist Torsten Oppelland from the University of Jena said the impact of the demonstrations was difficult to quantify. There is no data available on this. However, the slightly higher voter turnout in the runoff election indicates a mobilization effect. “The wave of demonstrations may well have had a decisive impact.”
Source: Stern
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