The election of the next mayor of Pirna must be decided in a second round. In the first round of voting on Sunday, the candidate put forward by the AfD, Tim Lochner, received the most votes, but clearly missed the required absolute majority with 32.9 percent, as the city announced on its website in the evening. Although Lochner is deputy chairman of the AfD city council faction, he is not a party member.
The other candidates were Ralf Thiele (Freie Wähler/23.2 percent), Kathrin Dollinger-Knuth (CDU/20.2 percent), André Liebscher (individual candidate/13.7 percent) and Ralf Wätzig (SPD/9.9 percent). The incumbent mayor, Klaus-Peter Hanke (non-party), did not stand for re-election.
After this result, a second round of voting will be necessary on December 17. All candidates can run again. However, a simple majority of votes will then be sufficient. Voter turnout was 50 percent, compared to 45 percent in the previous mayoral election.
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