Preliminary results show that as predicted, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s incumbent conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) won Saturday’s state election in Saxony, receiving 39 percent of the votes and up to 59 of the 132 seats. This means Premier Stanislaw Tillich will continue to govern, but will need to seek out a new coalition partner, with the liberal FDP party receiving only 3.7 percent of the votes – failing to clear the 5 percent hurdle required for parliamentary representation. The eurosceptic Alternative for Germany party (AfD) won 10 percent of the vote. The AfD, with lead candidate Frauke Petry (pictured top), has capitalized on voter concerns about asylum seekers in its campaign. The party only narrowly failed to enter the national parliament and the state assembly in Hesse last year. It did, however, manage to garner seven seats in the European Parliament at elections in May. The right-wing, populist party drew voters away from the extreme-right National Democratic Party (NPD), whose re-entry into the state parliament is still unclear.
The second strongest force is again the Left party, with 18.5 per cent, followed by the Social Democrat party (SPD), on 12.6 percent.
Popular Premier
Since 2009, the most populous state in Germany’s east has been governed by a coalition of the CDU and FDP under Tillich. The 55-year-old Sorbian, an eastern European ethnic minority group, is considered to be down to earth and very popular.
The CDU won by a large majority in 2009, with over 40 percent of the vote. The FDP was then at ten percent. It’s suspected the CDU will likely form an alliance with the SPD this time around.
Full Article: German anti-euro party enters state parliament in Saxony elections | News | DW.DE | 31.08.2014.