Anis, Germany (AP) – In Germany’s smallest town, even during Sunday’s national election, only one of the 228 qualified voters voted for Germany to replace Germany.
Although the AFD quickly became Germany’s second largest political force, second only to the mainstream German conservatives, the party’s strength varies across the country.
In Arnis, Schleswig-Holstein, located at the northernmost tip, only 154 of the town’s 228 qualified voters participated in the poll on Sunday. According to official election results, nearly 42% of people voted for the Greens.
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With less than 300 residents living at the picturesque entrance to the Baltic Sea, the town is the smallest population and size in Germany, located in 0.45 square kilometers (0.17 square miles). This is a tourist hub with fishing trade, docks and shipyards.
Mayor Jens Matthiesen said it was surprising even a vote on the AFD.
“I don’t know how this happened,” Mattisson told the Daily Frankfurt Agrim Zeitung. “We are glad that only one person voted for the party. We can bear it.”
AFD is becoming increasingly popular due to opposing large amounts of immigration, German refugees have absorbed many immigrants over the past decade. The stagnant economy has also led to a serious unpopularity of the outgoing Olaf Scholz’s inline government.
The party appeared on Sunday as the nation’s former Communist Party and the most powerful force in prosperity in the East, cementing its premiere position as a region that has long been its stronghold and won its first state election last year.
Although the AFD has received strong support in other areas, the party has been working to gain momentum in places including Schleswig-Holstein. There, the party received only 16.3% of the vote, down from the party’s national score of 20.8%.
The state, formerly with a central right-wing and left-wing government, is currently one of only two countries in Germany, with no legislators in the regional legislature after the region failed to win any seats in the 2022 regional election.
In Arnis, Matthiesen established about 60 families in 1667, trying to avoid pretending to be loyal, and he said it was unlikely that voters would confuse their AFD neighbors’ identities.
“You can’t find it. A AFD voter won’t come out, either,” Mattisson told the newspaper.
