German leader Olaf Scholz was dealt a major blow on Monday as anti-immigration parties on the Left and the Right made massive gains in the regional election in Brandenburg.
His party, the SPD, narrowly avoided a humiliating result by just edging out the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party – which has a hard-line stance on immigration – 31 to 29 percent.
Meanwhile, Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), a left-wing party also known for its anti-immigration rhetoric, won 13 percent of the vote in an impressive performance.
The result means that while the SPD retained control of Brandenburg’s state parliament following the vote on Sunday, Scholz and the country’s establishment parties are under increasing political pressure over Germany‘s border policy, with federal elections just a year away, The Telegraph reports.
The AfD and BSW represent starkly opposed ideologies but curiously align on key issues including their opposition to supporting Ukraine against Russia‘s invasion and immigration.
Both parties also had strong results in state elections held in Saxony and Thuringia earlier this month, and pose a serious threat to the major parties in the national vote next year.
Current polling suggests the AfD would claim 19 percent of the vote and become the second largest party if the ballot were held today, with BSW on 10 per cent, as per the outlet.
Both the AfD and BSW have capitalised on growing rising public concern about irregular immigration, especially after a stabbing on August 23 during a festival in Solingen, The Financial Times reports.
The suspect – who allegedly killed three and injured eight others – is a Syrian national who was facing deportation after a failed asylum bid.
Scholz’s administration came under renewed pressure to introduce tougher border controls following the attack, which has been claimed by the Islamic State group (ISIS).
The new controls, which were brought in on September 16 initially for six months, saw passport checks introduced at all land crossings into Germany and were announced days after the (AfD) made big gains in the local elections.
Germany became a beacon for people fleeing war and persecution under Scholz’s predecessor Angela Merkel, who opened the country’s borders to welcome almost 1.3 million asylum seekers in the summer of 2015, many of whom were Syrians.
The number has risen to around 3 million in the nine years since, according to the newspaper. But popular opinion has shifted dramatically amid a rise in far-right parties across Europe.
The extreme policies of the AfD have seen Germany’s political parties rule out coalitions with them, but its growing support is continuing to exert major pressure on policymaking in Berlin.