AfD candidate wins mayoral election in Germany for the first time
Published: Sunday, Dec 17th 2023, 21:00
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An AfD candidate has won a mayoral election in Germany for the first time. Tim Lochner (53) won the second round of voting in Pirna, Saxony, on Sunday against two opponents from the CDU and the Free Voters. Lochner himself is independent but stood for the AfD. According to the provisional results, he received 38.5 percent of the vote, as the town announced on its website in the evening. He was followed by Kathrin Dollinger-Knuth (CDU) with 31.4 percent and the independent Ralf Thiele with 30.1 percent. He entered the race for the Free Voters. Lochner and Thiele were also former CDU members. Voter turnout was 53.8 percent - slightly higher than in the first round of voting (50.4 percent).
Lochner thanked his supporters after the election and declared on Sunday evening: "I promise I will see the seven years through." He wants to tackle the things that lie ahead of him with "calm and composure".
The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony recently classified the Saxon AfD as a confirmed right-wing extremist movement. When asked whether he would have a problem running for the town hall for the AfD after this classification, Lochner answered in the negative after his election on Sunday evening. When asked about his earlier comments on a "population exchange" - a conspiracy narrative that is widespread in right-wing circles - Lochner emphasized that he had said this as a private individual. He added: "If we have a proportion of foreigners in certain districts of 38 percent in elementary school and daycare centers, then for me that is already an exchange of the native population."
Before Pirna, AfD candidates had already won two important local political offices in Germany. In June, the AfD won a district council election for the first time - with Robert Sesselmann in the Sonneberg district of Thuringia. In August, Hannes Loth became the first mayor of a German municipality to be elected nationwide - in Raguhn-Jessnitz (Saxony-Anhalt).
In view of the election in Pirna, Saxony's AfD leader Jörg Urban spoke of a steep lead for next year's elections. According to Urban, the AfD wants to reach the 40 percent mark in the state elections in September. The Lord Mayor election in Pirna shows "that it is possible".
Saxony is currently governed by a coalition of CDU, Greens and SPD with Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) at the helm. In a survey published at the beginning of December, the AfD was on a par with the CDU with 33%.
Lochner has been a member of the city council of the town in Saxon Switzerland, which has a population of around 40,000, for many years. He had already stood in the Pirna mayoral election in 2017, but lost out to incumbent Hanke with 32.9 percent of the vote. The contact with the AfD came about via the city council faction, said the master carpenter when asked before his election as mayor. "I was approached, it was a good fit and I was unanimously nominated". However, Lochner rules out membership of the AfD. "I was previously a member of the CDU, but I gave back my party membership. Now I no longer want to be a party member."
Lochner - a carpenter and restorer by trade - had already dominated the first round of voting on November 26. He received 32.9% of the vote at the time, ahead of Thiele (23.2%) and Dollinger-Knuth (20.3%). The non-party candidate André Liebscher (13.7%) and Ralf Wätzig (SPD, supported by the Greens/just under 10%) did not stand in the second round of voting and supported the CDU candidate Dollinger-Knuth. Lochner will succeed Klaus-Peter Hanke (non-party), who did not run for mayor.
©Keystone/SDA
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