German far-right party ahead in east before regional votes
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has taken the lead in the east of the country ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), just a month before regional elections there, an opinion poll showed on Sunday.
The AfD entered Germany’s national parliament for the first time in 2017 as the third largest party, helped by voter anger at Merkel’s decision to welcome asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa.
Defeats for the SPD in Brandenburg, where it has won all of the last six elections there since German reunification in 1990, and the CDU in Saxony would put more pressure on the coalition partners to rethink their alliance in national government.
The eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony hold regional elections on Sept. 1, followed by Thuringia a month later.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-afd/german-far-right-party-ahead-in-east-before-regional-votes-idUSKCN1UU06O