German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has urged mainstream parties not to support the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which won a landslide victory in the eastern state of Thuringia in Sunday’s state election.
The result gives the far right its first victory in a provincial parliamentary election since the Second World War.
The AfD came second in Sunday’s general election, in the populous neighboring state of Saxony.
The AfD is designated as the right-wing extremists in Thuringia and Saxony. Björn Höcke, the AfD leader in Thuringia, has previously been fined for using a Nazi slogan, although he denies doing so.
On Monday, Mr Scholz called on other parties to prevent the AfD from governing by maintaining a so-called firewall against it.
“All democratic parties are now being asked to form stable governments without extremists,” he said, calling the results “bitter” and “worrying”.
The AfD is classified as right-wing extremist by local intelligence in Thuringia and Saxony. In May, a German court ruled that intelligence officials had reason to put the AfD under surveillance because of alleged extremism.
AfD coalition leader Alice Weidel said voters in Thuringia and Saxony had given her party a “clear mandate to govern”.
He urged the parties to ignore Mr Scholz’s call to form government coalitions outside the AfD, saying that doing so would “undermine the democratic participation of the majority of people”.
“Firefighters are not democratic,” added Ms. Weidel.
Without the support of other parties, the AfD cannot rule in Thuringia.
The second largest party, the conservative CDU, has made it clear that it will not consider governing with the far right.
Statistically, the Conservatives will need the support of left-wing parties to form a majority.
They have previously refused to cooperate with the leftist party Die Linke, meaning they may have to look to leftist Sahra Wagenknecht’s BSW to form a governing coalition – an option unpopular with many in the CDU.
Mr Höcke, the AfD’s top candidate in Thuringia, suggested that there are plenty of CDU voters who would be happy if they could work together instead.
In any case, with more than 30% of the votes the AfD has a so-called “blocking minority” – which means it will be able to stop the appointment of new judges and any change to the constitution.
Any alliance that emerges is likely to be highly unstable.
In Saxony, the Conservatives won 42 seats, just ahead of the AfD with 41, while Sahra Wagenknecht’s party is in third place with 15 seats.
In Thuringia, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Mr. Scholz won only six seats, none of his coalition partners the Greens and the liberal FDP. The SPD also fared badly in Saxony, where it came fifth.
The election underscored the unpopularity of Germany’s ruling “traffic light” party, so named for the party’s red, yellow and green colors.
Ms. Weidel said that the people “voted” for the coalition and urged Mr. Scholz and his colleagues to “pack their bags and leave their seats, because the voters want a different government, they want a different politics”.
The biggest issue for AfD voters on Sunday was immigration, especially the issue of refugees and asylum.
The chairman of the umbrella organization of Turkish communities in Berlin, Aslihan Yesilkaya-Yurtbay, said the election results were “shocking and frightening”.
“The future of this country’s migrant citizens is questionable,” he said.
The AfD also wants to stop arms transfers to Ukraine, as does Sahra Wagenknecht’s BSW.
Another five million east Germans were eligible to vote on Sunday.
The third eastern state, Brandenburg, is expected to vote in three weeks’ time and although the AfD is leading in opinion polls, the Social Democrats and conservatives are a few points behind.
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