Reporting from Berlin

29/11/2024

A senior figure in the party whose departure from Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition three weeks ago put Germany on the road to an early election resigned Friday in a furor over an internal document discussing how the party could leave the government, a presentation whose title referred to “D-Day.”

Bijan Djir-Sarai of the pro-business Free Democrats said he was quitting as general secretary, the official responsible for day-to-day political strategy and election planning. He said he was “taking the political responsibility in order to head off damage to my credibility and that of the Free Democrats.”

The affair threatens to complicate further the Free Democrats' campaign for an election in which polls already suggest they risk falling short of the 5% support needed to keep any seats in parliament.

Scholz fired Christian Lindner, the Free Democrats' leader, as finance minister on Nov. 6 as a long-running dispute in his three-party coalition over how to revitalize Germany's stagnant economy came to a head. The Free Democrats quit the government, leaving Scholz without a parliamentary majority.

Scholz plans to call a confidence vote on Dec. 16. He is expected to lose, paving the way for an election on Feb. 23.

Scholz and Lindner have traded blame for the collapse of the coalition, a combination of the chancellor's center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the Free Democrats that had long been notorious for infighting.

After the coalition collapsed, German media reported on an internal strategy document which they said set out plans by the Free Democrats to end the government. On Nov. 18, Djir-Sarai denied that the term “D-Day” — a reference to the Allied landings in France in 1944 that helped liberate Europe from N**i Germany's rule — had been used.

But on Thursday, the Free Democrats released what they said was a working document drawn up by a lower-level official on questions of how the party could communicate a possible departure from the government. It is headed “D-Day process scenario and measures” and contains a reference to the “beginning of the open battle” as one stage in the communication effort.

That language drew criticism even from within the party.
Djir-Sarai said in his brief resignation statement that he had not known of the internal document at the time of his denial and had unwittingly given false information. He apologized.

The party said the paper was first drawn up on Oct. 24 and was last updated on Nov. 5, the version it released.

The lower-ranking official who the party said originally created the document, Carsten Reymann, also resigned.

The general secretary of Scholz's Social Democrats, Matthias Miersch, told German news agency dpa that Djir-Sarai's resignation was a “sacrifice” meant to “divert responsibility” from Lindner. He said that “the decisive question remains: what role did Christian Lindner himself play in these plans?”

26/11/2024

Germany is drawing up a list of bunkers that could provide emergency shelter for civilians, the interior ministry has said, at a time of rising tensions with Russia.

The list would include underground train stations and car parks as well as state buildings and private properties, a ministry spokesperson said.

A digital directory of bunkers and emergency shelters will be drawn up so people can find them quickly using a planned phone app. People would also be encouraged to create protective shelters in their homes by converting basements and garages, the spokesperson told a press briefing.

He declined to give a timetable, saying it was a big project that would take some time, involving the Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance and other authorities.

The country of 84 million people has 579 bunkers, mostly from the second world war and the cold war era, which can provide shelter for 480,000 people, down from about 2,000 bunkers previously.

The spokesperson said the key points of the plan were agreed at a conference of senior officials in June and a special group was looking into it.

13/11/2024

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced that he will ask for a vote of confidence on Dec. 16, paving the way forward for an early parliamentary election in February.

10/11/2024

Tens of thousands of people celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall 35 years ago in Germany's capital on Saturday with open-air concerts, art installations and official events commemorating one of the country's most historic days on Nov. 9, 1989.

It was “a lucky day for which we Germans are still grateful today," Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

Built in 1961, the Berlin Wall stood for 28 years at the front line of the Cold War between the Americans and the Soviets. It was built by communists to cut off East Germans from the supposed ideological contamination of the West and to stem the tide of people fleeing East Germany.

It had carved a 97-mile swath through Berlin’s heart and the surrounding countryside, and through the hearts of many of its people. However, when the border was opened 35 years ago, it took less than a year until the country’s reunification on Oct. 3, 1990.

Today only a few stretches of the wall remain, mostly as a tourist attraction.

For the anniversary celebrations on Saturday, event organizers created a temporary wall of 5,000 posters designed by children and adults under the motto “We uphold freedom,” which attracted a steady flow of visitors, including many foreign tourists. It stands along a four-kilometer (2.5-mile ) stretch of the former wall in downtown Berlin.

The posters combine the demands of East German protesters against the communist authorities in autumn 1989, such as freedom of expression, freedom of the press and freedom to travel, with current day wishes and were created as part of workshops in schools, church parishes, local art groups and cultural projects.
“Uphold freedom, because without freedom everything else is nothing,” Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner said at an official anniversary event with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Berlin Wall Memorial.

“Freedom and democracy have never been a matter of course," the mayor said, warning that both were currently under attack from many sides.

For Saturday night, 700 professional and amateur musicians were expected to synchronously play songs on different stages along the path of the former wall.

Among other songs, they were planning to perform Heroes” by David Bowie and “Freiheit,” or freedom, by German rockstar Marius Müller-Westernhagen. The lyrics will be shown on screens so that the audience can sing along.

The Russian dissident band “Pussy Riot” performs Sunday as the highlight and conclusion of the anniversary celebrations.

((NOTE: Picture is from the 30th Anniversary Celebration))

31/10/2024

https://apnews.com/article/germany-iran-consulates-closed-ex*****on-jamshid-sharmahd-b724c4915cd620a33b5bd00b26387200

Germany has ordered the closure of all three Iranian Consulates in the country in response to the ex*****on of Iranian German prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd, who lived in the United States and was kidnapped in Dubai in 2020 by Iranian security forces.

17/10/2024

It’s clear that we are entering a new era in world history and geopolitical relationships:

During his visit to Germany, US President Joe Biden will stress the importance of the German-US relationship, as he has been doing for decades. The end of his presidency is also the end of an era.

14/10/2024

The case goes back to 1974 and involves the shooting of a Polish man in the back as he tried to escape to what was then West Germany:

The court handed down a guilty verdict and a 10-year sentence to a former officer of East Germany’s dreaded secret police, in a case straight out of the Cold War.

03/10/2024

The Ulmer Münster in southern Germany is the world’s tallest church. For now, anyway. The Gothic-style Lutheran church’s reign began in 1890 and is expected to end next year.

30/09/2024

The Freedom Party secured the first far-right national parliamentary election victory in post-World War II Austria on Sunday, finishing ahead of the governing conservatives after tapping into anxieties about immigration, inflation, Ukraine and other issues. But its chances of governing were unclear.

Preliminary official results showed the Freedom Party finishing first with 29.2% of the vote and Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party was second with 26.5%. The center-left Social Democrats were in third place with 21%. The outgoing government — a coalition of Nehammer's party and the environmentalist Greens — lost its majority in the lower house of parliament.

Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister and longtime campaign strategist who has led the Freedom Party since 2021, wants to be chancellor.

But to become Austria’s new leader, he would need a coalition partner to command a parliamentary majority. Rivals have said they won’t work with Kickl in government.

The far right has benefited from frustration over high inflation, the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic. It has also built on worries about migration.

In its election program, titled “Fortress Austria,” the Freedom Party calls for “remigration of uninvited foreigners,” for achieving a more “homogeneous” nation by tightly controlling borders and suspending the right to asylum via an emergency law.

The Freedom Party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is highly critical of Western military aid to Ukraine and wants to bow out of the European Sky Shield Initiative, a missile defense project launched by Germany. Kickl has criticized “elites” in Brussels and called for some powers to be brought back from the European Union to Austria.

“We don't need to change our position, because we have always said that we're ready to lead a government, we're ready to push forward this change in Austria side by side with the people,” Kickl said in an appearance alongside other party leaders on ORF public television. “The other parties should ask themselves where they stand on democracy,” he added, arguing that they should “sleep on the result.”

Nehammer said it was “bitter” that his party missed out on first place, but noted he brought it back from lower poll ratings. He has often said he won't form a coalition with Kickl and said that "what I said before the election, I also say after the election.”

More than 6.3 million people were eligible to vote for the new parliament in Austria, an EU member that has a policy of military neutrality.

Kickl has achieved a turnaround since Austria’s last parliamentary election in 2019. In June, the Freedom Party narrowly won a nationwide vote for the first time in the European Parliament election, which also brought gains for other European far-right parties.

Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, whose party dominates the Netherlands' new government, congratulated the Freedom Party on social network X Sunday. So did Alice Weidel, a co-leader of the Alternative for Germany party.

The Freedom Party is a long-established force but Sunday's result was its best yet in a national parliamentary election, beating the 26.9% it scored in 1999.

In 2019, its support slumped to 16.2% after a scandal brought down a government in which it was the junior partner. Then-vice chancellor and Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache resigned following the publication of a secretly recorded video in which he appeared to offer favors to a purported Russian investor.
The leader of the Social Democrats, a party that led many of Austria’s post-World War II governments, positioned himself as the polar opposite to Kickl. Andreas Babler ruled out governing with the far right and labeled Kickl “a threat to democracy.”

While the Freedom Party has recovered, the popularity of Nehammer’s People’s Party declined sharply compared with 2019. Support for the Greens, their coalition partner, also dropped to 8%.
During the election campaign, Nehammer portrayed his party, which has taken a tough line on immigration in recent years, as “the strong center” that would guarantee stability amid multiple crises.
But crises ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and resulting rising energy prices and inflation also cost it support. The government also angered many Austrians in 2022 with a short-lived coronavirus vaccine mandate, the first in Europe.

But the recent flooding caused by Storm Boris that hit Austria and other countries may have helped Nehammer slightly narrow the gap as a crisis manager.

The People’s Party is the far right’s only way into government, and now holds the key to forming any administration.

Nehammer repeatedly excluded joining a government led by Kickl, describing him as a “security risk” for the country, but didn't rule out a coalition with the Freedom Party itself — which would imply Kickl renouncing a position in government. But that looks very unlikely with the Freedom Party in first place.

The alternative would be an alliance between the People’s Party and the Social Democrats — with or without the liberal Neos, who took 9% of the vote.

A final official result will be published later in the week after a small number of remaining postal ballots have been counted, but those won’t change the outcome substantially.

About 300 protesters gathered outside the parliament building in Vienna Sunday evening, holding placards with slogans including “Kickl is a N**i.”

(( Picture: Vienna ))

19/09/2024

Security has tightened at Oktoberfest in the wake of last month’s deadly knife attack in Solingen in western Germany.

Authorities are warning revelers to expect longer lines at entry points as metal detectors will be deployed for the first time in the Bavarian beer festival's 189-year history.

Authorities say there are no specific threats to the world's largest folk festival, which begins Saturday with the traditional keg-tapping in Munich and runs through Oct. 6. Some 6 million participants, many wearing traditional lederhosen and dirndl dresses, are expected over the course of the event.

The stepped-up security comes after an Aug. 23 attack in Solingen that left three dead and eight wounded. A 26-year-old Syrian suspect was arrested. He was an asylum-seeker who was supposed to be deported to Bulgaria last year but reportedly disappeared for a time and avoided deportation. The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for the violence, without providing evidence.

The violence has left Germany shaken and pushed immigration back to the top of the country’s political agenda. In response, the Interior Ministry extended temporary border controls to all nine of its frontiers this week. The closures are set to last six months and are threatening to test European unity.

The effects of the Solingen attack and other recent violence across Germany will also be felt at Oktoberfest. Hand-held metal detectors will be used for the first time, with police and security staff using them on a random basis or following suspicious activity.

“We have had to react to the fact that attacks with knives have increased in recent weeks and months,” Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter told The Associated Press during a media tour of the festival grounds to highlight the new security measures. “We will do everything we can to ensure that nobody comes to Oktoberfest with a knife or other dangerous weapons.”

In addition to some 600 police officers and 2,000 security staff, more than 50 cameras will be spread across the grounds of the festival, which will be fenced off as well. Festival-goers also are prohibited from bringing knives, glass bottles and backpacks.

Oktoberfest is no stranger to increased security throughout its history. In 2016, authorities implemented tighter measures in response to a series of attacks, including when a German teenager fatally shot nine people at a Munich mall before killing himself.

Oktoberfest is a difficult event for police to secure completely, though authorities say there aren’t any concrete threats to the festival.

The festival's organizer, Clemens Baumgärtner, promised a safe public space, possibly "the safest place in Germany" during the 16 days of Oktoberfest.

16/09/2024

The death toll was rising in Central European countries on Sunday after days of heavy rains caused widespread flooding and forced evacuations.

Several Central European nations have already been hit by severe flooding, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Slovakia and Hungary might come next as a result of a low pressure system from northern Italy dumping record rainfall in the region since Thursday.

(Note: The picture used in this report was created by generative artificial intelligence and is used only as art to represent the importance of the story and the impact flooding can have.)

The floods have claimed six lives in Romania and one each in Austria and Poland. In the Czech Republic, four people who were swept away by waters were missing, police said.
It's not over yet

Most parts of the Czech Republic have been affected as authorities declared the highest flood warnings at around 100 places across the country. But the situation was worst in two northeastern regions that recorded the biggest rainfall in recent days, including the Jeseniky mountains near the Polish border.

In the city of Opava, up to 10,000 people out of a population of around 56,000 have been asked to move to higher ground. Rescuers used boats to transport people to safety in a neighborhood flooded by the raging Opava River.

“There’s no reason to wait,” Mayor Tomáš Navrátil told Czech public radio. He said that the situation was worse than during the last devastating floods in 1997, known as the “flood of the century.”
“We have to focus on saving lives,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala told Czech public television on Sunday. His government was set to meet Monday to assess the damages.

The worst “is not behind us yet,” the prime minister warned.
President Petr Pavel sounded more optimistic, saying “it's obvious we've learned a lesson from the previous crisis.”

Thousands of others also were evacuated in the towns of Krnov, which was almost completely flooded, and Cesky Tesin. The Oder River that flows to Poland was reaching extreme levels in the city of Ostrava and in Bohumin, prompting evacuations.

Ostrava, the regional capital, is the third-largest Czech city. Mayor Jan Dohnal said the city will face major traffic disruptions in the days to come. Almost no trains were operating in the region.
Towns and villages in the Jeseniky mountains, including the local center of Jesenik, were inundated and isolated by raging waters that turned roads into rivers. The military sent a helicopter to help with evacuations.

Jesenik Mayor Zdenka Blistanova told Czech public television that several houses in her and other nearby towns have been destroyed by the floods. A number of bridges and roads have been badly damaged.

About 260,000 households were without power Sunday morning in the entire country, while traffic was halted on many roads, including the major D1 highway.

A firefighter dies as Lower Austria declared a disaster zone
A firefighter died after “slipping on stairs” while pumping out a flooded basement in the town of Tulln, the head of the fire department of Lower Austria, Dietmar Fahrafellner, told reporters on Sunday.

Authorities declared the entire state of Lower Austria in the northeastern part of the country a disaster zone, while 10,000 relief forces have so far evacuated 1,100 houses there. Emergency personnel have started setting up accommodation for residents who had to flee their homes due to the flooding.

The municipality of Lilienfeld with about 25,000 residents is cut off from the outside world. Residents were told to boil tap water as a precaution.

The situation is particularly dangerous along the Kamp River, which flows into the Danube. The Ottenstein reservoir on the river functions as a buffer, but exceeding its limits could cause more flooding, experts say.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said the situation “continues to worsen.” He said 2,400 soldiers were ready to support the relief effort in Austria. Of those, 1,000 soldiers will deploy to the disaster zone in Lower Austria, where dams were beginning to burst.

“We are experiencing difficult and dramatic hours in Lower Austria.

For many people in Lower Austria these will probably be the most difficult hours of their lives,” said Johanna Mikl-Leitner, the governor of Lower Austria.

In Vienna, the Wien River overflowed its banks, flooding homes and forcing first evacuations of nearby houses.
Romania reports 2 more flooding victims

Romanian authorities said Sunday that another two people had died in the hard-hit eastern county of Galati after four were reported dead there a day earlier, following unprecedented rain.
Dramatic flooding in Poland

In Poland, one person was presumed dead in floods in the southwest, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday.

Tusk said the situation was “dramatic” around the town of Klodzko, with about 25,000 residents, located in a valley in the Sudetes mountains near the border with the Czech Republic. Helicopters were used to pick up people from roofs in a few cases.

In Glucholazy, rising waters overflowed a river embankment and flooded streets and houses. Mayor Paweł Szymkowicz said, “we are drowning,” and appealed to residents to evacuate to high ground.
A bridge in the town collapsed under the flood pressure and a police station building was knocked down in Stronie Śląskie, after floodwaters burst through a dam. Submerged cars could be seen in many places in the Kłodzko Valley region bordering the Czech Republic, while a new flood wave was expected there.

In the city of Jelenia Gora, which has 75,000 residents, downtown streets were flooded after one of the embankments burst on the Bobr River. City authorities have warned residents they may need to evacuate as more flooding was moving toward the city.

Energy supplies and communications were cut off in some flooded areas, and regions may resort to using the satellite-based Starlink service, Tusk said.

The weather change arrived following a hot start to September in the region. Scientists have documented Earth’s hottest summer, breaking a record set just a year ago.

A hotter atmosphere, driven by human-caused climate change, can lead to more intense rainfall.

12/09/2024

With inflation subsiding, the European Central Bank cut interest rates again on Thursday to prop up tepid growth with lower borrowing costs for companies and home buyers. The U.S. Federal Reserve likely won’t be far behind in joining the rate-cutting process.

The bank’s rate-setting council lowered the deposit rate from 3.75% to 3.5% at a meeting at its skyscraper headquarters in Frankfurt.

It was the second rate cut as the bank starts to withdraw some of the swift rate increases it imposed to s***f out a burst of double-digit inflation that broke out after Russia cut off most natural gas supplies over its invasion of Ukraine.

But experts don't expect a rapid series of rate cuts from either the ECB or the Fed central bank to anywhere near the rock-bottom levels from before the 2020 outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They say the ECB will tiptoe, rather than slash, and might cut rates only one more time this year. Inflation's down with the help of lower oil prices.

Inflation in the 20 countries that use the euro currency fell to 2.2% in August, not far from the ECB’s 2% target, down from 10.6% at its peak in October, 2022.

At her post-decision news conference, bank President Christine Lagarde said recent data had confirmed “our confidence that we are heading towards our target in a timely manner.” Asked about the next meeting on Oct. 17, she said, “I'm not giving you any commitment of any kind as far as that date is concerned.”

But she steered clear of any guidance on further cuts. She said the bank would make rate decisions on a meeting by meeting basis depending on incoming information about the economy and was "not pre-committing to a particular rate path.”

Policy makers must keep an eye on simmering inflation among services companies and rising wages as workers push to make up for purchasing power lost to the outburst of inflation that followed the end of the pandemic.

The ECB cut once in June and then hit pause in July before going on summer break in August. The rate-setting council led by President Christine Lagarde has to juggle concerns about a disappointing outlook for growth against - which argues for cuts - against the need to make sure inflation is going to reach the bank’s 2% target and stay there - which would support keeping rates higher for a bit longer.

Consumer prices spiked after Russian cut off most natural gas shipments to Europe over its February, 2022 invasion of Ukraine, sending utility bills higher. The rebound from the pandemic also led to bottlenecks in supplies of parts and raw materials, further boosting inflation that then spread more broadly to services, a broad category that includes medical care, personal services such as haircuts, restaurants, hotels and entertainment.

The ECB and the Fed responded with swift rate rises, the ECB bringing its benchmark rate to a record high of 4%, since cut in June to 3.75%.

The central bank’s benchmark rate strongly influences what private-sector banks pay to borrow - and through that rates across the rest of the economy. Higher rates cool inflation by making it more expensive to borrow and buy things, holding back price rises. But high rates can slow growth, and that worry is coming into focus.
Higher rates in Europe and the U.S. have meant increased mortgage costs for home buyers, and higher payments for people who run credit card balances or buy cars on credit. But they have been a boon to savers and retirees who like interest income and are getting visible returns on their bank holdings or money market accounts after years of zero returns.

The Fed is also expected to make a first cut in its benchmark rate at its Sept. 17-18 meeting from a 23-year high of 5:25%-5.5%. Consumer prices rose 2.5% in August from a year earlier, down from 2.9% in July. It was the fifth straight annual drop in inflation. Core inflation excluding volatile fuel and food - which can be a better guide - was higher at 3.2%.

“The long-awaited Fed easing cycle is upon us,” said Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings, but the Fed rate-setters “will be cautious after the inflation challenges of the past few years. The pace of rate cuts will be gentle and monetary easing won’t do much to boost growth next year.”

Europe growth has been sluggish, at 0.3% in the second quarter of this year and a roughly 1.0% annual rate based on performance in the first half. That follows more than a year of near-zero stagnation. Hopes for a more robust pickup have been dampened by recent indicators of business and consumer sentiment, and by a stream of bad news from the eurozone’s biggest economy, Germany.

Germany contracted by 0.1% in the second quarter and its outlook remains gloomy amid a global slowdown in manufacturing. On top of that come long-term factors such as an ageing population, shortage of skilled workers, lagging implementation of digital technology, and excessive bureaucracy that slows down business creation and expansion. Major employer Volkswagen has dropped its no-layoffs pledge that was to run through 2029 as it seeks to cut costs, and has warned it may need to close one or more factories in Germany amid weaker demand for its new electric vehicles in Europe and in China.

(Pictured: Steglitz City Hall in Berlin which includes both shopping, dining and government offices)

05/09/2024

Police in Munich have exchanged fire with a man in an area near a museum on the city’s N**i-era history and the Israeli Consulate.

01/09/2024

A far-right party won a state election for the first time in post-World War II Germany in the country’s east on Sunday, and looked set to finish a very close second to mainstream conservatives in a second vote.

A new party founded by a prominent leftist also made a strong impact, while the parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular national government obtained extremely weak results.

The far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 32.8% of the vote in Thuringia — well ahead of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, the main national opposition party, with 23.6%.
In neighboring Saxony, projections for ARD and ZDF public

television with the count well advanced put support for the CDU, which has led the state since German reunification in 1990, at 31.9% and AfD on 30.6-30.7%. AfD made substantial gains in

Thuringia and smaller ones in Saxony compared with the last state elections in 2019.

“An openly right-wing extremist party has become the strongest force in a state parliament for the first time since 1949, and that causes many people very deep concern and fear,” said Omid Nouripour, a leader of the Greens, one of the national governing parties.

Other parties say they won't put AfD in power by joining it in a coalition. Even so, its strength is likely to make it extremely difficult to form new state governments, forcing other parties into exotic new coalitions. The new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, or BSW, took 15.8% of the vote in Thuringia and nearly 12% in Saxony, adding another level of complication.

“This is a historic success for us,” Alice Weidel, a national co-leader of AfD, told ARD. She described the result as a “requiem” for Scholz's coalition.

The CDU's national general secretary, Carsten Linnemann, said that “voters in both states knew that we wouldn't form a coalition with AfD, and it will stay that way — we are very, very clear on this."
Weidel denounced that as “pure ignorance” and said that “voters want AfD to participate in a government.”

Deep discontent with a national government notorious for infighting, anti-immigration sentiment and skepticism toward German military aid for Ukraine are among the factors that have contributed to support for populist parties in the region, which is less prosperous than western Germany.

AfD is at its strongest in the formerly communist east, and the domestic intelligence agency has the party’s branches in both Saxony and Thuringia under official surveillance as “proven right-wing extremist” groups. Its leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, has been convicted of knowingly using a N**i slogan at political events, but is appealing.

Höcke bristled when an ARD interviewer mentioned the intelligence agency's assessment, responding: “Please stop stigmatizing me. We are the No. 1 party in Thuringia. You don’t want to classify one-third of the voters in Thuringia as right-wing extremist.”

He said he felt “a great, great deal of pride” in Sunday's result for his 11-year-old party and “the old parties should show humility.”
Scholz's center-left Social Democrats at least stayed in the two state legislatures with single-digit support, but the environmentalist Greens lost their seats in Thuringia. The two parties were the junior coalition partners in both outgoing state governments. The third party in the national government, the pro-business Free Democrats, also lost its seats in Thuringia. It already had no representation in Saxony.

A third state election follows Sept. 22 in another eastern state, Brandenburg, currently led by Scholz's party. Germany's next national election is due in a little over a year.

Thuringia’s politics are particularly complicated because the Left Party of outgoing governor Bodo Ramelow has slumped into electoral insignificance nationally. It lost more than half its support compared with five years ago, dropping to 13.1%.

Sahra Wagenknecht, long one of its best-known figures, left last year to form her own party, which is now outperforming the Left. Wagenknecht celebrated that party's success, underlined its refusal to work with AfD's Höcke and said she hopes it can form “a good government” with the CDU.

The CDU has long refused to work with the Left Party, descended from East Germany’s ruling communists. It hasn’t ruled out working with Wagenknecht’s BSW, which also is at its strongest in the east. But the result means the CDU can't put together a coalition that has a majority in Thuringia's legislature without the Left Party.

AfD has tapped into high anti-immigration sentiment in the region. The Aug. 23 knife attack in the western city of Solingen in which a suspected extremist from Syria is accused of killing three people helped push the issue back to the top of Germany's political agenda, and prompted Scholz's government to announce new restrictions on knives and new measures to ease deportations.

Wagenknecht’s BSW combines left-wing economic policy with an immigration-skeptic agenda. The CDU has also stepped up pressure on the national government for a tougher stance on immigration.

Germany’s stance toward Russia’s war in Ukraine is also a sensitive issue in the east. Berlin is Ukraine’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the United States; those weapons deliveries are something both AfD and BSW oppose. Wagenknecht has also assailed a recent decision by the German government and the U.S. to begin deployments of long-range missiles to Germany in 2026.

(Picture: Erfurt, capital of the German state of Thuringen)