This archive report was first published on 28 October 2019.
On October 27, 2019, the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) made significant gains in the eastern region of Thuringia, doubling its score from the previous election in 2014 to 23.4 percent.
The AfD's success has sparked fear among Jewish groups in Germany, with the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, stating that the party's ideology could no longer be dismissed as 'protest votes.'
"Anyone who voted for the AfD on Sunday shares responsibility for the gradual undermining of the foundations of our democracy," Schuster said, adding that the AfD had lured voters 'with cheap racist propaganda.'
Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and head of Munich's Jewish community, warned that voters who had picked the AfD have 'backed a party that has for years prepared the ground for exclusion and violence of the far-right.'
Christoph Heubner, deputy president of the International Auschwitz Committee, also voiced fears over the trend, stating that the strong increase in votes for the AfD is a 'new terrifying sign' that raises fear of a further consolidation of right-wing extremist trends and attitudes in Germany.'
The AfD's strong result came despite widespread criticism after an October 9 attack in the eastern city of Halle, where a suspected neo-Nazi gunman tried and failed to storm a synagogue and then shot dead two people outside.
