Campact wants to weaken the AfD, especially in the Brandenburg elections. As in Saxony and Thuringia, criticism is inevitable this time too.
Brandenburg state elections poster for September 22, 2024 Photo: Achille Abboud/imago
Berlin Taz | Before the Brandenburg state elections, Campact started a campaign supporting the Democratic Party and opposing the AfD. The association calls for strategic priority voting and supports politicians from various parties with money, postal mail, direct mail and social media advertising. The goal is to minimize the influence of the AfD in the future state parliament.
Marie Schäffer is the Greens’ direct candidate in Potsdam and is likely to win directly there. Campact supports them with 25,000 euros and other support such as postal mail. According to the calculations, a party that has completed its term directly in Brandenburg can still enter the state parliament even if it misses the 5% threshold. Then she will get as many seats in the state parliament as she can get in the second round of voting.
Since things could be tight for the Greens in Brandenburg, Campact expects the party to enter the state parliament through Marie Schäffer’s direct mandate, which would give the AfD significantly fewer seats than it would have in a parliament without the Greens.
80,000 supporters
In the second part of the campaign, Campact tries to prevent as much as possible the direct mandate of the AfD in other constituencies. To this end, they support the most promising opposition candidates in 26 constituencies with money and mail. These are 25 SPD politicians who receive a total of 100,000 euros. Campact supports Free Voters candidate Péter Vida with 4,000 euros.
According to Campact, the campaign funds come from the organization’s supporters, who number about 80,000 in Brandenburg.
The goal of all these efforts is to deny the minority that would stand in the way of the AfD. If one party wins more than a third of the seats in the Bundestag, it can block important decisions, such as the election of constitutional judges.
In the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony in August, the AfD was threatened by a minority. Therefore, Campact also campaigned on strategic voting there. In Thuringia, the goal was clearly missed. However, in Saxony, the left-wing Juliane Nagel and Nam Duy Nguyen were put in power, which means that the left has entered the state parliament despite the overall poor results. This prevented the AfD from becoming a blocking minority.
Campact defends its own actions.
Campact’s approach is not welcomed by everyone. As before, there is criticism from Thuringia and Saxony. Manja Schüle is the SPD State Culture Minister and, like Marie Schäffer, is running in Potsdam. In a letter to Northern Express She was disappointed with Campact’s election recommendation for Marie Schäffer, who could have entered the state parliament in a second round of voting. She also criticized Campact for interfering with the election campaign.
Danny Schmidt of Campact says: Taz On this: “’Can’ is the right word. It is not yet clear whether the Greens will enter. Our only goal is to secure the Greens and prevent them from being kicked out of the state parliament, since Marie Schäffer is the most promising candidate.”
They had previously approached the SPD and Greens at the state level to discuss measures. Schüle’s SPD colleagues all received money.
Schüle now wants to continue the fight for the first vote and, according to his spokesman, is “going out to the constituencies more, talking more, seeking more contact with people.”
