A new mayor will be elected in Pirna on Sunday (from 8.00 am). In the town near Saxon Switzerland, the AfD has a chance of installing a candidate as mayor for the first time nationwide.
In the first round of voting on November 26, none of the five candidates for the head of the town hall achieved the required majority. The field of candidates has now been reduced to a trio: alongside CDU politician Kathrin Dollinger-Knuth, master carpenter Tim Lochner is running for the AfD and Ralf Thiele for the Free Voters. Thiele and Lochner are non-partisan.
In the first round, the AfD candidate was clearly ahead with just under 33 percent of the vote. He was followed by Thiele with 23.2 percent and Dollinger-Knuth with 20.3 percent. Ralf Wätzig (SPD/Greens) received almost 10 percent and the independent candidate André Liebscher just under 14 percent. CDU candidate Dollinger-Knuth will now be supported by the two candidates who are not running again.
The voter turnout in the first round was only 50.4 percent. Several initiatives have called for a broad participation in the second round of voting. If Lochner were to win, he would be the first mayor to be nominated by the AfD. Incumbent Klaus-Peter Hanke (non-party) did not run again in the municipality with around 40,000 inhabitants near the border with the Czech Republic.
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