Vice President of the Bundestag Katrin Göring-Eckardt fears that the AfD could block important decisions and paralyze the judiciary following election successes in eastern Germany. This could happen if the far-right party were to gain a third of the seats in the state parliament, a so-called blocking minority, the Green politician told the German Press Agency. She referred to her home state of Thuringia in particular. "A lot depends on the outcome of the elections in Thuringia for democracy."
A new state parliament will be elected in Thuringia in September, as well as in Saxony and Brandenburg. The AfD is number one in the polls in all three states. While it recently scored around 24% in Brandenburg, it was around 30% in Thuringia and Saxony. A blocking minority of one third of state parliamentary seats is conceivable with such figures if several small parties fall just short of the five percent threshold. In Thuringia, this could affect the Greens, who are currently polling at around four percent, but also the FDP.
