The far-right AfD tops the polls in eastern Germany, while the center-right CDU/CSU bloc claims overall victory in the EU elections 2024. German participation hits a post-reunification high.
Germany will not hold a snap election as demanded by the opposition despite bruising EU election results for all three parties in the ruling coalition, the spokesman for Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said.
Steffen Hebestreit rejected calls from Bavaria’s state premier, Markus Söder, to follow in the footsteps of French President Emmanuel Macron, who announced parliamentary elections late on Sunday after suffering his own defeat.
“The election date is next fall as planned, and we plan to follow that through,” Hebestreit said, also pointing to Germany and France’s different political systems.
A call for snap elections also came from Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which saw a surge in support at the elections for the European Parliament.
Weidel accused the government of making policies against Germans, saying, “People have had enough.”
