Municipalities: AfD will soon have another full-time mayor

The AfD says it will appoint another full-time mayor in the future – it would be the first in Brandenburg. The previously independent mayor of the Brandenburg town of Jüterbog, Arne Raue, submitted an application for membership to the AfD last week. The responsible Teltow-Fläming district association unanimously decided on the inclusion on Sunday, Brandenburg’s AfD state leader René Springer told the German Press Agency in Berlin. After a one-month objection period has expired, Raue will then be a member of the Brandenburg regional association.

AfD sees this step as a success for more influence across the country

AfD leader Alice Weidel said she was pleased that this would further strengthen her party’s local political roots. “Mr. Raue brings great expertise and social skills to the party.” Last year, local politician Robert Sesselmann was elected Germany’s first AfD district administrator in Sonneberg, Thuringia. Hannes Loth, the first full-time AfD mayor in Germany, also came into office in the small town of Raguhn-Jeßnitz in Saxony-Anhalt. Although there have been AfD mayors before, the German Association of Cities and Municipalities was not aware of any full-time mayors to date.

Raue had expressed sympathy for the AfD in the past. He welcomed the Berlin AfD at a party conference in his city in October with a greeting: “The blue color is already a familiar image for me here, my heart beats full of joy.” Springer said: “We appreciate his many years of work as mayor of Jüterbog and his political consistency, which he is proving with this step.”