There are different reactions in Thuringian state politics to the outcome of the mayoral election in Nordhausen. Representatives of the red-red-green minority coalition are looking at the vote with a mixture of relief and concern. For example, the Green parliamentary group leader in the Thuringian state parliament, Astrid Rothe-Beinlich, wrote “hair-sharp” on Sunday on the short message service X, which was recently called Twitter, after the election victory of the non-party incumbent Kai Buchmann became apparent. The state chairman of the Left, Christian Schaft, said in an initial reaction, according to a statement: “This election was a rejection of nationalist and right-wing ideologies by the majority of the citizens of the city of Nordhausen and thus also a rejection of the AfD.”
Both Rothe-Beinlich and the co-chair of the Thuringian Left, Ulrike Grosse-Röthig, also said that the relatively high level of support for AfD candidate Jörg Prophet frightened them. “But the relief must not obscure the fact that it remains a task for all democratic parties to create trust in political decisions and to further deprive the AfD of its breeding ground through socially just policies,” said Grosse-Röthig. Rothe-Beinlich wrote: “The result must make us think about how we can permanently counter hatred and agitation and never leave democracy to those who despise it and endanger it.”
The SPD state chairman Georg Maier described the election result on X as “good news”. “The clear stance of many actors and a loud civil society turned the result of the first round of voting.”
In the runoff election for the office of mayor of Nordhausen, the AfD candidate Prophet received 45.1 percent according to the preliminary results. Incumbent Buchmann accounted for 54.9 percent.
The chairman of the Thuringian CDU, Mario Voigt, called the result of the vote in Nordhausen on X “a defeat for the entire AfD.” The election result marks a good day for the Free State. “Nordhausen and its citizens have sent an important signal.”
The reaction of the Thuringian AfD parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke was completely different. “In politics, victory and defeat are very close together,” he wrote on
