German anti-euro party eyes first seats in western state

BERLIN: Germany’s eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party may win seats in its first western state yesterday, buoyed by worries Greece’s new antiausterity government could unleash a fresh wave of turmoil in the euro zone.

The right-leaning AfD, which was founded in early 2013 to oppose euro zone bailouts, has been polling between 3 and 6 per cent ahead of yesterday’s vote in the northern city-state of Hamburg, the first of two regional elections in Germany this year.

Should the AfD reach the 5 per cent threshold needed to enter the regional assembly, it would establish the party as a potential long-term rival to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Conservatives, who had hoped its success would be limited to the east where it already has seats in three states.

Votes for the AfD could also threaten the absolute majority of ruling state premier Olaf Scholz, a respected centrist in the Social Democrats (SPD), forcing him into a coalition with either the Greens or the Christian Democrats (CDU).

“The eurosceptics are polling right at the level of the 5 per cent hurdle,” said Carsten Nickel of global advisory firm Teneo Intelligence. “This would not only make another absolute majority less likely (though not impossible) for the SPD. Crucially, it would also further establish the AfD in the German party system.” Some political analysts had predicted the AfD may be just a ‘flash in the pan’ like previous protest parties benefitting from fears about Greece. — Reuters