12th Oct 2025 12:52
(Alliance News) - Voters in Frankfurt an der Oder head to the polls on Sunday in a run-off that could give the far-right Alternative for Germany party its first mayoral victory in a German city.
Independent candidate Axel Strasser and AfD contender Wilko Moller are facing off after leading the first round of voting on September 21, when Strasser received 32.4% of the vote and Möller 30.2%.
Candidates from the centre-right Christian Democrats and the centre-left Social Democrats were eliminated in the first round.
Political scientist Jan Philipp Thomeczek, of the University of Potsdam, told DPA that a victory for Moller would send "a very strong signal" that the anti-immigrant and eurosceptic AfD can succeed in urban areas.
Frankfurt an der Oder is a city in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, located directly on the border with Poland. It is distinct from Frankfurt am Main, the much larger west German financial hub.
The German Association of Cities, Towns & Municipalities says there is currently no AfD-affiliated mayor of a city of significant size anywhere in the country.
Tim Lochner became mayor of the of the town of Pirna, near the Czech border, after being nominated for election in 2023 by the AfD, although he is an independent.
AfD politician Robert Sesselmann is the district administrator in the Sonneberg district in Thuringia. There are also AfD mayors in small towns in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The Brandenburg domestic intelligence service this year classified the AfD's state branch as "confirmed far-right extremist," a label the party rejects.
Brandenburg leaders say the AfD has shown contempt for government institutions, while Wilfried Peters, the state's domestic intelligence chief, added that the party advocates for the "discrimination and exclusion" of people who do not "belong to the German mainstream."
By Oliver von Riegen
source: DPA
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