In Germany's western city of Gelsenkirchen, the far-right AfD did well in this year's general election. Now the party hopes to win in local elections there. It's a nightmare scenario for many.
Local elections are different, because many actually know the candidates personally, lower voter turn up, the groups run on local issues and difference to the party on a federal level grow the smaller you go. For example there was a lot of media attention on Meißen in the state of Saxony getting an AfD mayor. The federal results would have made that fairly obvious, but in the end the AfD candidate lost with an 18% margin.
This is also true the other way around. Local results do not translate into state or federal results.
Local elections are different, because many actually know the candidates personally, lower voter turn up, the groups run on local issues and difference to the party on a federal level grow the smaller you go. For example there was a lot of media attention on Meißen in the state of Saxony getting an AfD mayor. The federal results would have made that fairly obvious, but in the end the AfD candidate lost with an 18% margin.
This is also true the other way around. Local results do not translate into state or federal results.