FORMER first minister Humza Yousaf has fired out a warning about “a rising tide of far-right populism” after the Alternative for Germany party won a state election.
AfD became the first far-right party to win a state election in post-war Germany in the eastern state of Thuringia on Sunday under one of its hardest-right figures, Bjorn Hocke.
In neighbouring Saxony, it finished only just behind the mainstream conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which leads the national opposition. Voters punished the three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition, which took well under 15% of the vote between them.
Yousaf – who has been outspoken about the rise of the far-right globally – has now urged people to stand up to the “hateful ideology” of the AfD.
He posted on Twitter/X: “A party steeped in xenophobia, antisemitism and Islamophobia is winning state elections in Germany.
“Europe is witnessing a rising tide of far-right populism, with hatred of Muslims and migrants being the driving force.
“We must confront their hateful ideology before it is too late.”
It comes after there were fears earlier this year that Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally looked set to win the French election, though in the end the left-wing New Popular Front alliance secured the biggest number of seats after a second round of voting.
A wave of far-right riots also gripped England at the start of last month as disinformation spread online following the murders of three children in Southport.
A party steeped in xenophobia, anti-Semitism & Islamaphobia is winning state elections in Germany. Europe is witnessing a rising tide of far-right populism, with hatred of Muslims & migrants being the driving force. We must confront their hateful ideology before it is too late. https://t.co/1JaaQTxyZd
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) September 1, 2024
Fake news about the identity of the suspect – who some claimed had arrived in the UK by small boat – sparked a number of far-right actors into action with riots taking place in the likes of Hartlepool and Rotherham.
AfD now holds more than a third of the seats in Thuringia’s state legislature which would, for example, allow it to block appointments of judges to the regional constitutional court – and that will make it hard to build workable governments.
Chancellor Scholz said the results were "bitter" and called on other mainstream parties to form state governments without the far right.
One of Germany's best-known Holocaust survivors, Charlotte Knobloch, pointed out that the election had taken place 85 years to the day since the outbreak of the Second World War. The result had left the country in danger of becoming "more unstable, colder and poorer, less safe and less worth living in", she said.
With federal elections only a year away, the AfD is second in national opinion polls.
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.
“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.
