Germany: Far-right groups make huge gains in local elections

Via The Independent (h/t glykosymoritis):

The hard-right  has made stunning gains in a local election in central Germany - with a small neo-Nazi party winning 17 per cent of the vote in one district.

The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) won an average of 13.2 per cent of the vote across the state of Hesse on Sunday - making it the third largest party in the region behind Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party.

Meanwhile in the small town of Leun, 50 miles north of Frankfurt, the neo-Nazi NPD party managed to win 17 per cent of the vote - making it the third largest party.

In Büdingen, which is home to Hesse’s largest refugee centre, the NPD took up 14 per cent of the vote - up from two per cent in 2011.

The hard-right’s gains were particularly noticeable in Frankfurt - a global financial capital with a cosmopolitan population - where they won 10.3 per cent of the vote, coming in fourth place, Hessischer Rundfunk reports.

Previously the AfD have typically been most successful in the economically marginalised areas in the former East German states.

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