Countdown begins for what is expected to be historic elections in Thuringia and the Saxony next Sunday and already the Alternative for the Germany it has an air of firstness in both states. In Thuringia he is clearly ahead, based on the latest opinion polls.

In Saxony, he is fighting with the Christian Democrats, but he is ahead by 2 points in the last few days there as well. And in Brandenburg, which also holds elections on September 22, the AfD is ahead.

With a resounding intervention of its Episcopal Assembly Catholic Church through Bishop Georg Betsing, calls on the faithful in Thuringia and by extension in eastern Germany not to vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany.

And this is because its positions “are not consistent with Christian values, respect for human dignity and the Christian project for charity and solidarity.” “This party wants to overthrow the free, democratic system,” says the president of the Episcopal Assembly, a theologian and Bishop of Limburg, Georg Betsing.

“Far-right parties like the AfD are not a voting option for Christians. Voting is an obligation. That’s why we encourage you to vote. But we also offer you orientation” says the Bishop, speaking to the newspaper Tagespiegel, speaking of a party that is constantly “radicalizing” in recent years.

Direct response from the AfD

However, already since February, the Episcopal Assembly, with a joint statement of its presidency, had clearly distanced itself from the AfD, then against the background of journalistic revelations about plans for mass “repatriations” of immigrants living in Germany.

The anger of the Exchange against Germany was immediate and mocking. “Betzing confused the position of the shepherd of the community with the position of the government representative,” the party’s representative for religious issues in the federal parliament, Nicole Hechst, told the French news agency AFP.

However, the Bishop of Limburg in the same interview was also critical of Sarah Wagenknecht and her representative party, saying that she “speaks for Russian President Vladimir Putin while his country has invaded a sovereign country and has been waging war for almost three years ».

But he went further in his statements, saying that for him, anyone who sympathizes with Putin endangers basic principles of democracy and international law, as well as peace in Europe.