The far-right AfD is establishing a foothold in former East Germany, and experts think they will grow further unless established German parties act.
Germany’s main far-right party has expanded its influence in the country with a strong showing in two states during regional elections on Sunday.
“The AfD is the new Volkspartei [party of the people] in the East,” said Bjoern Hoecke, leader of the party’s Thuringia branch said on Sunday. Since the crisis, the AfD’s platform has shifted to one more vocally anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic and those issues form the basis of its campaigning. One of the party’s strongest figures, Andreas Kalbitz, was revealed by the German media to have attended aJoerg Urban, the group’s leader in Saxony, worked to bring the AfD closer to the pan-Europe anti-Islamic street protest movement PEGIDA.
The Social Democrats also suffered with a 5.7 point drop to 26.2 percent of voter share in Brandenburg, as well as a 4.7 point drop in Saxony, to 7.7 percent overall.
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