Germany: Lower Saxony local polls in focus after AfD win

Residents in the northwestern state of Lower Saxony are voting for  mayors, district administrators and local councils in elections that are drawing unusual attention after the far-right Alternative for Germany's (AfD's) huge win in Saxony-Anhalt last week. 

The local polls come ahead of key state elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on September 20 that will also be closely watched as the AfD gains popularity across the country.

However, the party still has much less support in western states than in those in what used to be communist East Germany, with the AfD achieving just 4.6% at district level in the 2021 local elections in Lower Saxony.

Some 6.3 million people are eligible to vote in Sunday's elections.

The massive job cuts taking place at car manufacturer Volkswagen are likely to loom large in voters' minds, as Lower Saxony is home to Volkswagen's HQ and six of its ‌plants, as well as being a key shareholder in the company.

Any run-off elections will take place across the state on September 27.

We are resuming our coverage of all things German on Sunday as local elections get underway in the northwestern state of Lower Saxony.

They are drawing unusual attention in light of last week's landslide victory for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.

With two key state elections still to come this year, results for the AfD, which continues to gain support across the country, will be closely monitored.

This comes as the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate warns of a "really critical situation" for industry as low water levels in the Rhine continue to hinder shipping.

Read on for more stories from and about Germany on September 13.

We will be back with more later on Sunday. Bis bald!

For many decades, romanticized tales of the US Wild West have been popular in Germany. But these stories can be difficult for Native Americans to accept.

Markus Söder, leader of the Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, or CSU, has ruled out an internal move to oust the under-pressure chancellor, Friedrich Merz.

Merz has faced growing criticism in recent months for the sluggish pace of promised reforms and amid a surge by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which won the most votes in a state election in Saxony-Anhalt last week.

Asked by the Bild newspaper if there were plans to remove Merz, Söder said, "certainly not from the CSU."

"I am not responsible for the CDU; I am not its chairman. But I can say that for the CSU," Söder added.

Söder said he still believes Merz is the right man to lead the government and push through reforms, urging the center-right alliance to "not let the AfD drive a wedge between us now."

France beat Germany, the hosts, 86–64 on Saturday to qualify for the women's basketball World Cup final.

Among the 12,650 fans in the German capital were German men's basketball icons Dirk Nowitzki and Dennis Schröder, but they could not cheer their team to victory against the strong French lineup.

Gabby Williams shone for the victors with 22 points, helping France reach the final for the first time. 

The United States, the favorites, will take on Spain in the second semifinal later. 

The final will take place on Sunday.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has questioned the effectiveness of the "firewall" strategy used by Germany's major political parties to prevent the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) from gaining power.

"As we can see, this is a strategy that does not work," she told the Italian newspaper Il Foglio, when asked about the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party's victory in last weekend's elections in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Meloni also noted that political movements "that focus on the defense of identity, the fight against mass illegal immigration and the danger of Islamization" have gained strength in Europe.

The reaction of the "establishment," Meloni said, has often been "to erect firewalls rather than addressing the substantive issues."  

She added that this strategy clearly does not work and that "listening to these concerns and responding to them" is a more successful approach.

Earlier, Meloni — who leads the right-wing Brothers of Italy party — has distanced herself from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and its political views on several occasions.

Berlin police said that a woman wearing a Star of David was injured in an antisemitic attack by two men.

The men verbally abused the woman with antisemitic slurs in the middle of the night on Torstrasse in the central district of Mitte before one of them attacked the 43-year-old with a broken bottle, according to police.

Police said the men approached her earlier, at around 2:30 a.m. (0030 GMT), about her Star of David. The state security department of the state criminal police office has taken over the investigation.

The woman sustained cuts to her hand while defending herself and was taken to the hospital. 

The incident occurred during the Jewish New Year celebration, Rosh Hashanah, which began Friday evening. 

With the slogan "Not a Step Back! No to the AfD and Right-Wing Hate Speech!" around 20,000 people marched through downtown Düsseldorf, according to reports from the police and organizers. 

Several political initiatives called for the protest rally to send a united message of support for an open, democratic society.

Among the participants, who marched peacefully without any counter-demonstrations, according to police, were the "Grandmas Against the Right."

On their poster, which was secured with a small piece of fabric and pins, they proclaimed: "The right is only for knitting." Numerous families with children also joined the protest march in beautiful weather.

Meanwhile, in Berlin, several marches protesting the normalization of right-wing politics converged on the town hall. Police estimated that 18,000 people participated, though organizers claimed that 32,000 people took part.

The demonstrations were prompted by the state election in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party received nearly 44% of the vote, the most by far, but fell short of an absolute majority.

As part of a nationwide initiative, rallies were also held in several cities demanding a review by Germany's Constitutional Court of parties suspected or confirmed by the country's domestic intelligence agency to be far-right extremists.

The largest of these rallies took place in Munich, where police estimated that around 12,000 people gathered.

Around 2,000 people gathered in Mainz, 1,500 in Saarbrücken, and 1,100 in Magdeburg. Protests were also held in Leipzig and Saarbrücken.

Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported that security officials have tied the recent attempted drone attack at Leipzig/Halle airport to a Russian national working directly with Moscow's GRU military intelligence agency.

Classified security assessments cited by the paper say the man, who entered Germany from Turkey and exited to Russia via Serbia, was responsible for operational logistics.

German authorities reportedly knew of the man's ties to the GRU when he entered the country but failed to put him under surveillance. 

German intelligence sources said that the explosives were likely smuggled into Germany via truck from Bulgaria and Serbia.

Berlin said forensic evidence found at Leipzig/Halle airport — including drone configuration, explosives and trigger mechanisms — pointed to a Russian plot. 

Authorities were later able to match DNA traces on the drone to those found after an arson attack at a Leipzig logistics facility on July 20, 2024.  

The airport incident occurred on the evening of August 4 and involved an explosives-laden drone that was discovered near a Ukrainian transport jet.

Leipzig/Halle airport is a hub for military aid destined for Ukraine. 

Authorities were able to disarm the drone for which the German government blamed Russia — on the basis of the report — in early September.

After an overnight break, we are back on the news of the day from Germany, where we will start with intelligence reports that provide evidence that Russia was behind a failed August 4 drone attack at Leipzig/Halle airport.

After that we will look at Russian President Vladimir Putin claiming that the failed policies of Western politicians are the reason for the rise of the far-right AfD in Germany. 

And speaking of the AfD, we will then look at panic in Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU over the prospects of the party — which is currently polling at 7% ahead of state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania — failing to clear the 5% hurdle to enter the state's parliament when voters take to the polls on September 20.

We will back with more Germany news in this blog on Saturday. Bis dann! 

Eva Umlauf, a Holocaust survivor and the president of the International Auschwitz Committee, has written an open letter calling for a move to ban the AfD in Germany. 

She addressed the letter to Henrdik Wüst, a prominent CDU politician and the state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, most likely because he has in recent days called for the establishment of some kind of working group to evaluate the case for a ban motion.

"Let deeds follow your words," Umlauf wrote in the letter to Wüst, published in full by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. "Set an AfD ban case in motion. Now, before it is too late." 

She recounted her own time in Auschwitz, having been brought there in her mother's arms aged two. 

"At some point, and it is not so far away now, the last of us survivors will be gone," Umlauf wrote. "Therefore we are passing on the burden that we have carried for a lifetime: to this country, to this society and in particular to you as a politician." 

She recalled that the first state government led by Hitler's NSDAP was Anhalt in 1932.

"Eight months later, Hitler became chancellor," she said. "It was possible, because others believed that they could contain him. And because many looked the other way. Because they thought it would pass. The Holocaust did not start with gas chambers, it began with apathy."

She issued three requests to Wüst in the letter. First, to ensure that "steps towards an AfD ban process are taken rapidly." Second, to speak to Holocaust survivors and people in Saxony-Anhalt "who are afraid right now."

And finally, to support a potential bid for an investigation into a ban from his position in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament. Such a motion would need to clear that chamber with majority support.

This public transport update is accompanied by a magnitude 3.7 myopia warning from our Bonn newsroom. 

The company that runs Bonn's public transport, Stadtwerke Bonn, has said that two of its 60 defective city trams or streetcars are back in service.

It said they would help out with the annual fair in the Pützchen district over the weekend, which brings additional visitors to the eastern part of the city. 

The need to take some 60 vehicles out of service for repairs was announced a full seven weeks ago on July 21. It's not clear how far the other 58 are from resuming service. 

Replacement buses have been trying to pick up the slack, and some subway stations have also been shut for repairs.

This is exacerbated by ongoing road disruptions in the former capital due to the long-term closure of the main highway bridge over the Rhine River. 

The chairman of the oversight committee that monitors Stadtwerke Bonn, David Lutz, recently conceded: "Our patience really is somewhat at an end and used up."

Lutz called on the company to issue a fixed timetable for its plan to reestablish the tram services. A legal firm has also been asked to evaluate any potential shortcomings. 

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party says it is seeking to prosecute Chancellor Friedrich Merz for comments he made during Wednesday's general debate in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament.

Merz had said that the AfD's contentious "remigration" policy amounted to "nothing other than an ethnic cleansing by skin color and heritage." The comment prompted jeers from AfD members in parliament, but Merz repeated a paraphrased version of the allegation over the commotion.

It's extremely rare for parties to seek to prosecute politicians for comments they make in parliament, which are subject to far-reaching parliamentary privilege and in most cases are exempt from prosecution under Article 46 of Germany's constitution. 

However, the AfD believe that Merz's comments constituted defamatory insults — the only type of speech that is not necessarily protected by indemnity. Senior AfD politician Stephan Brandner described Merz's comments as "relevant to prosecution." 

Under German law, authorities are typically allowed to investigate parliamentarians for such comments if they see fit. However, the Bundestag must also vote to revoke the lawmaker's immunity.