European elections open Super election year 2024
The European elections mark the beginning of an exciting super election year in 2024. They will be followed by the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia on 1 September and in Brandenburg on 22 September. The current Survey on the state elections show that the AfD is leading in all three East German states. Nevertheless, the party has lost support and its head Start slowly melts away.
Since its peak at the turn of the year, the AfD has also seen a decline in the polls for the federal election. Pollsters attribute this in part to controversies within the party, particularly calls to expel millions of people of foreign origin from Germany. This led to numerous rallies against extremism and for the strengthening of the democratic center against more extreme parties such as the AfD.
In addition, Wagenknecht's newly founded party BSW has taken votes away from the AfD. Like the AfD, the BSW focuses mainly on voters in the East who are not satisfied with the established parties. Furthermore, some of the AfD's top politicians are involved in scandals. Bundestag member Petr Bystron is suspected of having accepted money from a Russian network. Bystron is running for the AfD in second place on the list for the European elections.
The AfD's top candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, was forced to withdraw from the election campaign and from the party executive. His comments on the Nazi organization SS led to the AfD being excluded from the right-wing ID group in the European Parliament. One of Krah's employees is also suspected of spying for China.
Source: nachrichten.ag
