AfD in second gear without victory
CDU leads again in district elections in Saxony
7/3/2022 9:49 pm
In the second round of district elections in Saxony, the AfD did not win a single seat and was relegated to third place by independent voters. As in the first round, the CDU leads almost everywhere in Bavaria.
The CDU maintained its dominant position in the district elections in Saxony. CDU candidates won five of the six districts where the second round of voting took place on Sunday. In the district of Zwickau, however, the candidate of the CDU defeated the candidate of the Free Voters by only ten votes. On the other hand, in the district of Mitelsachsen, the Christian Democrats lost the post of district administrator, where the non-party individual candidate Dirk Neubauer won, who was supported by the SPD and the left. So far, the CDU has occupied all the county offices in the Free State. The AfD, however, missed out on its goal of winning a district executive post in a local election in Saxony for the first time in Germany.
Three weeks ago, CDU candidates had an absolute majority in three districts in the first ballot. A second round of voting was necessary in the districts of Vogtland, Zwickau, Erzgebirge, Mitelsachsen, Bautzen and Görlitz, as none of the candidates immediately received the necessary votes. In Sunday’s second vote, a simple majority was enough.
Zwickau: Big surprise
CDU politician Carsten Michaelis won the election for the district office in the Zwickau district by a landslide. In the end, the Union politician was only ten votes ahead of his rival Dorothy Obst from the Independent electorate. Both got 35.9 percent of the votes. 26,679 voters voted for Michaelmas and 26,669 for Obst. Andreas Gerold from the AfD (19.1 percent), Jens Juraschka from the SPD (7.2 percent) and Jens Haustein from the party diBasis (1.8 percent) played no part. Only 28.9 percent votes were registered. The effect of the fruit is considered a big surprise.
Görlitz: AfD candidate fails again
CDU politician Stefan Mayer is the new district administrator in the district of Görlitz. In the evening’s second round, Sebastian Whipple (AfD / 35.8 percent) and individual candidate Sylvio Ingo Arndt (7.8 percent) received 56.4 percent of the vote. Only 39.8 percent votes were recorded. Long-time incumbent Bernd Lange did not reappear. Mayer was the parliamentary secretary of the CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament. Whipple already lost the 2019 mayoral race in Gorlitz.
Vogtland: Clear victory for mayor of Klingenthal
The Lord Mayor of Klingenthal, Thomas Hennig, won the district election in Vogtland for the CDU. In Sunday’s second poll, 63.4 percent of voters voted for the 44-year-old. In the first ballot held three weeks ago, he failed to enter the district office by an absolute majority. His rivals from the AfD and Die Linke got 26.4 and 10.2 percent respectively. 32.5 percent votes were reported.
Erzgebirge: Free voters displace AfD from third place
The CDU strengthened itself in the district elections in the Ore Hills. In the second ballot, his candidate Rico Anton received 40.1 percent of the vote. Volker Weber of Free Voters came second with 33.8 percent. AfD candidate Torsten Gahler got 16.3 percent and Stefan Hartung from the far-right Freie Sachsen got 9.8 percent. 38.1 percent votes were reported. Anton, 44, studied administration and has been a member of the state parliament since 2014.
Middle Saxony: Non-Party Victory with Greens and Left
The non-party Neubauer opposed the CDU from the Central Saxony district. Augustasburg’s previous mayor has 55.6 percent of voters. AfD man Rolf Weigand took second place (24.1 percent) and CDU candidate Sven Liebhauser third (20.4), the state statistics office reported on preliminary results. Neubauer’s candidacy was supported by the SPD, Left and Green parties. The voter turnout on Sunday was 36.6 percent.
Bautzen: CDU with new leader
The district office in the district of Bautzen is in the hands of the CDU. The previous deputy district administrator, Udo Witsas, managed to win the race for leadership in the district clearly. Witschas won the second ballot with 43.5 percent of the vote against AfD politician Frank Peschel (27%) and left-wing politician Alex Theile (23.9%). Individual candidate Tobias Jantsch (5.5 percent) has no chance. 36.7 percent votes were reported. Long-time CDU incumbent Michael Harik did not stand for election.
