AfD likely to be second as far-right numbers rise in German elections

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party celebrates the Bavarian election results in Munich. Photo: LEONHARD SIMON/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is set to become the country's second-largest party in key regional elections that spell disaster for Olaf Scholz's ruling coalition.

< p>Exit polls showed the AfD had exploded. from its post-industrial strongholds in eastern Germany and achieve its best results in the western states of Hesse and Bavaria. If the result is confirmed in Hesse, home to the financial capital Frankfurt, it would cement the party as the state's official opposition, ahead of all parties in Chancellor Scholz's unpopular «traffic light» coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens. and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

Voters have been put off by repeated public fights, especially over a controversial plan to replace fossil fuel heating systems with clean alternatives. They also opted for right-wing parties as immigration came up on the agenda, with more than three-fifths of Bavarians saying they were worried about too many people moving to Germany or about rising crime.

Government parties have been forced to reform EU asylum laws and reduce the number of non-EU migrants and refugees entering the country, which has risen sharply in recent years.

Hubert Eivanger, leader of the Free Voters party, celebrates in Bavaria. Photo: Alexandra Bayer/Getty Images

In both states, former chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc is likely to win by a wide margin, and its share of the vote in Hesse, the wealthy central state, is forecast to increase by 8 percent under Boris Rein , moderate Christian Democrat (CDU) prime minister of the state.

In Bavaria, the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), which has ruled Bavaria since 1957, is likely to achieve its 2018 record low of 36 percent.

In the run-up to the Bavarian elections, much attention has been paid to Hubert Eivanger, Deputy Prime Minister, who during his school years was accused of distributing an anti-Semitic leaflet and illegal Hitler salute. Eivanger disputed these accusations and called them a left-wing witch hunt against the German people.

He appears to have been rewarded in the election, as his eccentric Free Voters party won a record number of seats, enough to continue in the so-called Bavarian coalition with the CSU.

This is a particularly embarrassing result for socialist SPD Chancellor Scholz, which ran in Hesse with Nancy Feiser, Federal Minister of the Interior, as its main candidate. She has said she wants to succeed Rein as state premier after 24 years of CDU rule, but could end up in fourth place behind the Conservatives, AfD and Greens.

The SPD is likely to finish a distant fifth in Bavaria.

The center-right FDP could be expelled from the Bavarian parliament after failing to win 5 percent of the vote and will also look nervously at results in Hesse. The failures of previous elections heightened tensions in the government as the pro-business party tried to bolster its authority by blocking reforms proposed by the Greens.