Local elections in Saxony make political work in the municipalities more difficult

The results of Sunday's local elections are making politics in the Free State more difficult from the point of view of the local authority associations. The work is becoming more challenging "as the spectrum in the district and municipal councils continues to fragment", said the President of the Saxon Association of Districts, Henry Graichen, to the German Press Agency. In the municipalities, however, this is "less (party) political and more oriented towards the cause". The Leipzig district administrator is "firmly convinced that everything will be done in the committees to make decisions on the basis of the free democratic basic order and for the benefit of the municipalities".

From the perspective of Mischa Woitschek, Managing Director of the Saxon Association of Towns and Municipalities, the election result does not make decision-making any easier in many towns and municipalities. "On the other hand, it is a traditional strength of local politics that most decisions are made as substantive decisions," he told the German Press Agency. At least in the smaller and medium-sized towns and municipalities, "a sharp party-political demarcation along the lines of the state parliaments and the Bundestag is not common anyway".

According to Woitschek, with the AfD, CDU and the voters' associations, three election candidates will be comparatively well represented in most town and municipal councils. "The other established parties, with the exception of the CDU, may have entered the waters of federal politics, although the decisions made there cannot be influenced at local level," he said.

The AfD is in first place in all ten districts after the votes have been counted. With the state capital Dresden and Chemnitz, the party has also won in two of the three major cities. Its state association is classified as right-wing extremist by Saxony's Office for the Protection of the Constitution, but is currently defending itself legally against this. Five years ago, the CDU won eight out of ten districts. In the major cities, the AfD came in 2nd (Chemnitz), 3rd (Dresden) and 4th (Leipzig).