But if celebration was in order on Sunday night, there are also storm clouds on the horizon.Ramelow first became Thuringia’s minister-president after the last such contest in late 2014.

Most importantly, despite the persistence of a large low-wage sector, unemployment has hovered around 5 percent and the economy continues to grow above the national average.The Thuringian party’s success signals a victory for Die Linke’s more pragmatic currents, which hope to replicate the state’s red-red-green coalition elsewhere. German media’s tendency to talk up “the Bodo Effect” to explain Die Linke’s popularity, rather than take seriously the party’s policies, soon gets old. The party’s vote rose from 28.2% in the 2014 state elections.The AfD’s vote rose dramatically from 10.6% in 2014 to 23.4%.The other traditional and major German parties did very poorly. Ramelow’s position is bolstered by Thuringia’s unique constitutional provision, allowing the sitting minister-president to remain in power indefinitely should a stable coalition fail to materialize. Yet it is hard to picture a scenario in which red-red-green will become an option on the national stage anytime soon, particularly as the unprecedented rise of the AfD destabilizes parliamentary politics and makes majorities of any kind difficult to come by. The grassroots democracy movement that forced the dismissal of longtime East German leader Erich Honecker in 1989 also empowered a younger generation of reform politicians in East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party who looked to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika as their model for political change. Thüringen was part of the former East Germany prior to reunification in 1990.The election resulted in a rise in support for both Die Linke (The Left) and the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), an extreme right-wing party headed by a fascist in Thüringen. His campaign posters did not even mention Die Linke. AfD’s showing means it will be impossible for Die Linke (30% of the vote), the left-of-centre Social Democrats (8%) and the Green party (5.5%) to repeat their coalition. It was engineered with the tacit support of not just its traditional allies, the Christian Democrats (CDU), but the right-populist and increasingly far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). (Optional) Enter your postcode for local activist event updates.General Secretary, Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) He is no caricature of a provincial simpleton with an irrational dislike for immigrants, but rather a disciplined, ideologically driven operator.Höcke has grasped the AfD’s potential to become a mass party that if not directly espouses at least tolerates and provides cover for his brand of organized white supremacy.

This doesn't appear to be a valid email. Die Linke won 31% of the vote — the highest result — however not enough to rule in its own right. Its support among workers and the youth has not collapsed the way it did earlier this fall in Brandenburg and Saxony, but it split the trade unionist vote with the far-right — showing how precarious traditional dividing lines have become in parliamentary politics. Led by Bodo Ramelow — the incumbent minister-president — it won resoundingly, bucking Die Linke’s otherwise largely downward trend in recent years.

The economy also continues to grow above the national average.On the other hand, Ramelow’s government also hired hundreds of new police officers, as part of his law and order stance. Voters […]Sunday was a good night for the members and supporters of Germany’s left-wing Die Linke party, as it picked up a historic 31 percent of the vote in the Thuringia state election. Many East Germans feel diminished and angry about this unbalanced view of their lives. Die "Alternative für Deutschland" (AfD) bietet für die Wirtschafts- und Finanzkrise sowie die vielfältigen Probleme einer modernen und pluralen Gesellschaft keine Alternative. Yet Thuringia’s economy is performing comparatively well, and the government did follow through on several campaign promises.