The German Central Israel Council expressed deep shock yesterday Sunday at the electoral victory of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the local elections in Thuringia.

“Not all AfD voters have extreme right-wing views,” the chairman of the Israeli central council, Joseph Schuster, estimated, according to the Jüdische Allgemeine newspaper.

“But the party they voted for is, according to the Constitution Protection Service, extreme far-right,” he added.

Mr Schuster expressed deep concern that so many citizens (including 52.8% of the electorate in the district) voted for the AfD. He spoke of a “breach in the dam” which “the democratic political forces in this country simply cannot accept”.

The International Auschwitz Committee also expressed horror at the election result.

Its executive vice-president, Christoph Heubner, underlined that yesterday was “a sad day for the district of Sonenberg, for Germany and for democracy. The majority of voters apparently said goodbye to democracy and consciously chose a far-right party (…) dominated by a Nazi.”