Independent Robert Nitz (34, left) won the mayoral election in Seelow (Brandenburg) on Sunday against AfD candidate Falk Janke (60, right). Photo: Christian Hoffmann/Patrick Pleul/dpa
By Michael Sauerbier
Polls are one thing, elections are something completely different… Again the AfD loses a mayoral election in Brandenburg. On Sunday, individual applicant Robert Nitz (34, independent) in the district town of Seelow clearly beat AfD candidate Falk Janke (60) with 68.5 to 31.5 percent.
Long faces on Sunday evening in the AfD headquarters in Berlin. On Saturday, party leader Tino Chrupalla traveled with the Brandenburg state and parliamentary group leaders to the large rally in the small town of Seelow (5,600 inhabitants). For the first time, the right-wing extremists wanted to appoint the head of the town hall of a German district town.
Your candidate: so right-wing that the AfD did not want to take him on in 2014: accountant Falk Janke (60) ended up from the CDU via the radical Schill party at the right-wing extremist DVU – and finally at the AfD. Brandenburg’s state association is classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Neo-Nazi Andreas Kalbitz is a member of the AfD parliamentary group despite being expelled from the party.
AfD boss Tino Chrupalla had come to Seelow for the election campaign – without success Photo: picture alliance / Geisler-Fotopress | Frederic Kern/Geisler-Fotopress
In Seelow, Chrupalla wanted to score with the frustration with the federal government, railed against inflation, alleged “climate lies” and “so-called refugees” in front of hundreds of supporters, and demanded peace with the war criminal Putin. Quite different opponent Robert Nitz. The deputy mayor campaigned for a school building program, affordable housing, and the preservation of a clinic and police station.
Solutions to the city’s problems won voters over hatred of the traffic light government. Exactly 2024 Seelowers gave Nitz their vote, only 930 wanted to see right-wing extremist Janke in the town hall. Already the third Brandenburg AfD election defeat after Cottbus and Ludwigsfelde in a row. Party leader Chrupalla said nothing about it.