Scholz urges German parties to isolate far right

BERLIN

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday urged parties to avoid collaborating with the far right, after the AfD made record gains in two regional polls and his own coalition suffered a heavy defeat a year before a general election.

In the former East German state of Thuringia, the anti-immigrant, anti-Islam AfD became the first far-right party to win a regional election since World War II, taking around 33 percent of the vote on Sept. 1.

The AfD was headed for a close second place in neighboring Saxony.

Germany's topselling Bild daily described the outcome as "a political earthquake."

Scholz, whose deeply unpopular three-party coalition received a slapdown in both states, called the results "bitter" and "worrying."

"The AfD is damaging Germany. It is weakening the economy, dividing society and ruining our country's reputation," he said.

"All democratic parties are now called upon to form stable governments without right-wing extremists," he said in a message on Facebook.

Coalition governments are the norm in Germany at federal and state level, and mainstream parties have always ruled out collaboration with the far right.

But AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said she believed the "undemocratic firewall" was untenable given the party's electoral success, while fellow leader Tino Chrupalla said there would be "no politics without the AfD."

The conservative CDU, the only centrist party to perform strongly on Sept. 1, was quick to dismiss the idea of teaming up with the AfD.

"Voters know that we do not form coalitions with the AfD," said Carsten Linnemann, the general secretary of the conservative CDU.

The CDU only narrowly edged out the AfD with 32 percent of the vote in Saxony, and came second in Thuringia.

The AfD's controversial local leader, Bjoern Hoecke, meanwhile declared that his party was the "people's party in Thuringia".

"We need change and change will only come with the AfD," he said, hailing the "historic result".