US EditionCDU Tops North Rhine-Westphalia Local Vote as AfD Nearly Triples Share in Final Count
- The 2025-09-14 local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, saw support for the far-right AfD more than triple, challenging the leading CDU-SPD coalition.
- This surge reflects the AfD's efforts to expand from eastern strongholds amid growing voter concerns about immigration and dissatisfaction with the coalition's handling of the economy and migration.
- Initial forecasts showed the CDU remaining the strongest party with 34% while the AfD reached 16.5%, and the SPD slipped to 22.5%, signaling a political shift.
- AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla called the results "a great success for us," while SPD officials warned that democrats must counter this emerging path of right-wing extremist support.
- These results suggest growing far-right influence in western Germany, raising concerns about political polarization and the coalition's stability amid rising nationalist sentiment.
206 Articles
206 Articles
Cologne "The current municipal election in North Rhine-Westphalia has shown that democracy would not be conceivable without elections. However, the election has also shown that a large number of people in the federal state openly reject democracy, which must oppose increasing attacks," says the director of the Cologne NS Documentation Centre, Henning Borggräfe, with a view to the growing vote shares of right-wing parties such as the AfD also in …
‘Result should give us pause’: German far-right AfD party makes big gains in municipal elections
Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made deep inroads in the country’s most populous state in municipal elections on Sunday, reaching mayoral run-offs for the first time and underlining its appeal beyond its eastern heartland.
Support For Far-Right Triples In Western German Vote
Alternative for Germany (AfD) has tripled its support in local elections in the country’s most populous state, a poll seen as the first electoral test for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition government. Friedrich Merz’s centre-right CDU held its ground as the strongest party in Sunday’s municipal elections. But the AfD, co-led by Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, made notable gains, winning 14.5 per cent of the vote compared with just 1.5 per c…
Profits for the AfD, losses for the SPD: What do the people in North Rhine-Westphalia say about the result of the local elections? A mood picture from Cologne and Gelsenkirchen.
As in most of Europe, the far right continues to surge in Germany. The right-wing populist AfD tripled its votes in the local elections in Germany's most populous state. The election shows that the party is far from just an East German phenomenon, writes Kjeld Hybel in this analysis.
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