(AFP) The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party lost its bid to capture its first mayor’s office in the country in a bellwether election on Sunday ahead of three key regional polls.
In a run-off ballot in Goerlitz, Octavian Ursu, 51, a Romanian-born classical musician from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right CDU party, drew 55.1 percent of the vote against 44.9 for the AfD’s Sebastian Wippel, 36, an ex-policeman.
The contest for Goerlitz’s city hall was seen as a litmus test for three upcoming state elections in the ex-communist east, with the future of Merkel’s fragile right-left coalition potentially on the line.
The AfD made strong gains in Goerlitz’s economically struggling Saxony state in May’s European elections and hopes to beat Merkel’s CDU party in the upcoming regional poll.
