A German far-right party wins its first state election and is very close in a second

BERLIN (AP) — A far-right party won a state election for the first time in post-World War II Germany in the country’s east on Sunday, and looked set to finish a very close second to mainstream conservatives in a second vote.

A new party founded by a prominent leftist also made a strong impact, while the parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular national government obtained extremely weak results.

The far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 32.8% of the vote in Thuringia — well ahead of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, the main national opposition party, with 23.6%.

In neighboring Saxony, projections for ARD and ZDF public television with the count well advanced put support for the CDU, which has led the state since German reunification in 1990, at 31.9% and AfD on 30.6-30.7%. AfD made substantial gains in Thuringia and smaller ones in Saxony compared with the last state elections in 2019.

“An openly right-wing extremist party has become the strongest force in a state parliament for the first time since 1949, and that causes many people very deep concern and fear,” said Omid Nouripour, a leader of the Greens, one of the national governing parties.

Other parties say they won't put AfD in power by joining it in a coalition. Even so, its strength is likely to make it extremely difficult to form new state governments, forcing other parties into exotic new coalitions. The new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, or BSW, took 15.8% of the vote in Thuringia and nearly 12% in Saxony, adding another level of complication.

“This is a historic success for us,” Alice Weidel, a national co-leader of AfD, told ARD. She described the result as a “requiem” for Scholz's coalition.

The CDU's national general secretary, Carsten Linnemann, said that “voters in both states knew that we wouldn't form a coalition with AfD, and it will stay that way — we are very, very clear on this."

Weidel denounced that as “pure ignorance” and said that “voters want AfD to participate in a government.”

Deep discontent with a national government notorious for infighting, anti-immigration sentiment and skepticism toward German military aid for Ukraine are among the factors that have contributed to support for populist parties in the region, which is less prosperous than western Germany.

AfD is at its strongest in the formerly communist east, and the domestic intelligence agency has the party’s branches in both Saxony and Thuringia under official surveillance as “proven right-wing extremist” groups. Its leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, has been convicted of knowingly using a Nazi slogan at political events, but is appealing.

Höcke bristled when an ARD interviewer mentioned the intelligence agency's assessment, responding: “Please stop stigmatizing me. We are the No. 1 party in Thuringia. You don’t want to classify one-third of the voters in Thuringia as right-wing extremist.”

He said he felt “a great, great deal of pride” in Sunday's result for his 11-year-old party and “the old parties should show humility.”

Scholz's center-left Social Democrats at least stayed in the two state legislatures with single-digit support, but the environmentalist Greens lost their seats in Thuringia. The two parties were the junior coalition partners in both outgoing state governments. The third party in the national government, the pro-business Free Democrats, also lost its seats in Thuringia. It already had no representation in Saxony.

A third state election follows Sept. 22 in another eastern state, Brandenburg, currently led by Scholz's party. Germany's next national election is due in a little over a year.

Thuringia’s politics are particularly complicated because the Left Party of outgoing governor Bodo Ramelow has slumped into electoral insignificance nationally. It lost more than half its support compared with five years ago, dropping to 13.1%.

Sahra Wagenknecht, long one of its best-known figures, left last year to form her own party, which is now outperforming the Left. Wagenknecht celebrated that party's success, underlined its refusal to work with AfD's Höcke and said she hopes it can form “a good government” with the CDU.

The CDU has long refused to work with the Left Party, descended from East Germany’s ruling communists. It hasn’t ruled out working with Wagenknecht’s BSW, which also is at its strongest in the east. But the result means the CDU can't put together a coalition that has a majority in Thuringia's legislature without the Left Party.

AfD has tapped into high anti-immigration sentiment in the region. The Aug. 23 knife attack in the western city of Solingen in which a suspected extremist from Syria is accused of killing three people helped push the issue back to the top of Germany's political agenda, and prompted Scholz's government to announce new restrictions on knives and new measures to ease deportations.

Wagenknecht’s BSW combines left-wing economic policy with an immigration-skeptic agenda. The CDU has also stepped up pressure on the national government for a tougher stance on immigration.

Germany’s stance toward Russia’s war in Ukraine is also a sensitive issue in the east. Berlin is Ukraine’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the United States; those weapons deliveries are something both AfD and BSW oppose. Wagenknecht has also assailed a recent decision by the German government and the U.S. to begin deployments of long-range missiles to Germany in 2026.

Protesters light pyrotechnics during a rally against the growth of right-wing parties in the state elections for Saxony, in Dresden, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (Sebastian Willnow/dpa via AP)

Police officers detain men during a protest against an election party of AfD supporters for the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia, in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (Fabian Sommer/dpa via AP)

People carry a banner reads "Against "Remigration" and "Repatriation Improvement Act - Against War and Fascism" during a protest against an election party of AfD supporters for the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia, in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (Fabian Sommer/dpa via AP)

Bjoern Hoecke, top candidate in Thuringia of the far-right Alternative for Germany, prepares for an interview during the state election for Thuringia, in Erfurt, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)

Police officers guard during a anti-fascist rally following the results of the state elections in Erfurt, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (Michael Reichel/dpa via AP)

Bodo Ramelow (Die Linke), waits for results on the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony, in Erfurt, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)

Mario Voigt, center, speaks after the first exit polls for the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony are released, in Erfurt, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (Martin Schutt/dpa via AP)

Bjorn Hecke (AfD) after the publication of the first forecasts for the state election in Saxony and Thuringia, in Erfurt, Germany, Sunday Sept. 1, 2024.. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)

BSW party chairwoman Sahra Wagenknecht speaks at the BSW election party after the first exit polls for the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony are released, in Erfurt, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (Christoph Soeder/dpa via AP) Christoph Soeder/dpa via AP)

Bjorn Hecke (AfD) after the publication of the first forecasts for the state election in Saxony and Thuringia, in Erfurt, Germany, Sunday Sept. 1, 2024.. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)

Participants in a demonstration against the right hold a banner reading "Fascism is not an opinion, it's a crime!" in Hamburg, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (Bodo Marks/dpa via AP)

Bjoern Hoecke, top candidate in Thuringia of the far-right Alternative for Germany, gestures as he walks through the state parliament, in Erfurt, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (Bodo Schackow/dpa via AP)

Election campaign posters of the Christian Democratic Union party, CDU, with top candidate Mario Voigt and of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance are displayed at a lamp post in Jena, Germany, Aug. 13, 2024. State elections in Thuringia and Saxony scheduled on Sunday Sept. 1, 2024, in the eastern Germany states. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

An electoral poster for the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, using the slogan "The Sun Rises in the East", is displayed in a street in the federal state Thuringia city Jena, Germany, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. In the federal state Thuringia, in former East Germany, the citizens are called to vote for a new state parliament on Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Bjoern Hoecke top candidate in Thuringia of the far-right Alternative for Germany, AfD, party waves to supporters during an election campaign rally in Suhl, Germany, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Sahra Wagenknecht, left, Chairwoman of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), Katja Wolf, Thuringian BSW State Chairwoman and top candidate for the state election in Thuringia 2024, and Christian Leye, BSW General Secretary, stand together on stage after an attack with red paint at the election campaign event on Domplatz, in Erfurt, Germany, Thursday Aug. 29, 2024. (Martin Schutt/dpa via AP)

Petra K'pping, Saxony's Minister of Social Affairs and SPD lead candidate for the 2024 state election in Saxony, welcomes German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the SPD's election campaign finale, in Chemnitz, Germany, Friday Aug. 30, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)

Bjoern Hoecke, top candidate of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, speaks on an election campaign rally of the party for upcoming state elections in Suhl, Germany, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. In the federal state Thuringia, in former East Germany, the citizens are called to vote for a new state parliament on Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

GAINESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Alison Lee sparked a shirtless caddie celebration by spinning a wedge into the cup for eagle. Andrea Lee holed a bunker shot to set up Rose Zhang’s walk-off eagle one hole later. And Megan Khang paused for 10 seconds to let gravity help her out on a critical birdie putt.

The wait was worth it for the United States, which maintained a four-point lead over Europe in the Solheim Cup on Saturday.

With top-ranked Nelly Korda getting an afternoon break after winning the leadoff point in three consecutive sessions of team matches, U.S. captain Stacy Lewis watched her role players excel, and the Americans concluded a warm, breezy day at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club with a 10-6 advantage.

“They’re playing the way I expected them to play, so I’m not surprised at all,” Lewis said. “But at the same time, to do it on this stage and in these moments and to pull these shots off and to make the putts and to do it with the joy that they’re doing it with, it’s the coolest part to me.”

Europe, which has captured the Solheim Cup the last three times, won the last two matches to conclude a 4-4 day. But the team in royal blue and yellow will need its largest comeback in Sunday singles to make it a record four in a row. The U.S. rallied from four points down to win in Germany in 2015.

The U.S. needs 4 1/2 points from a dozen singles matches to win the cup, and Europe needs eight points to retain it. Captain Suzann Pettersen drew inspiration from the European Ryder Cup team's rally from the same deficit to win at Medinah in 2012.

“I was on the opposite side in Germany, and I know what it feels like,” Pettersen said. “Everyone remembers Medinah. I mean, it’s a tough task.”

Lewis has relied on data to find the right combinations, whether keeping Korda and Allisen Corpuz together for alternate shot; sending rookie Lauren Coughlin out with three partners; or giving Zhang a comfortable pairing with Andrea Lee, her fellow Stanford Cardinal.

“I know their games backwards and forwards, and it’s allowed me to create some really good pairings,” Lewis said.

Korda and Corpuz fell behind early against Carlota Ciganda and Emily Pedersen but turned it around on the back nine and got a break when Corpuz hit a worm-burner of a fairway wood into the par-5 14th hole that avoided the water and settled within 20 feet. Korda put her hands on her head in disbelief and Lewis gave Corpuz a shoulder rub in the fairway.

Korda holed the putt for eagle, her second in a row on a hole the U.S. has dominated, and she and Corpuz became the first American duo to go 4-0 in foursomes after winning twice last year in Spain.

“The Americans have played unbelievable. I don’t know how many eagles they’ve had. It seems like they’ve had double figures,” Hall of Famer and European assistant captain Laura Davies said. “They’ve just played great golf. Out-putted us at the moment. Deep squad of players. We’ll never say never, but it is going to be very, very difficult to get the cup back.”

A day after transportation problems prevented most fans from getting to the golf course for the opening tee shots, a situation that LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan took responsibility for, the grandstands surrounding the first tee were full and fans lined the gallery ropes shortly after 7 a.m.

The only thing that kept them quiet was a slow start by the Americans, but it got loud once Korda started rolling.

In the first afternoon better-ball match, Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagstrom were 2 down to Khang and Alison Lee when Nordqvist birdied the par-3 11th hole. Khang's tying putt hung on the lip for 10 seconds before dropping, and she confirmed with a rules official that she had not waited too long for the ball to move.

Needing two putts to win the 14th, Khang made her 15-footer for eagle anyway, setting up the latest fist-pumping celebration for the Americans’ loudest cheerleader, who was next to the green in a cowboy hat when Corpuz hit her approach hours earlier.

Khang and Lee closed it out on the next hole for a 4-and-3 victory, Lee's first in a Solheim Cup match since 2015. She gave the U.S. an early lead with her wedge from 86 yards for an eagle 2 on the second hole, and the Americans’ caddies stripped from the waist up and chest-bumped to pay off a bet with Lee that they agreed to on the tee box.

“Literally holed out five minutes after that conversation. Great motivation,” Lee said.

Zhang and Andrea Lee never trailed in their 6-and-4 victory over Linn Grant and Celine Boutier. Zhang, the youngest U.S. player at 21 who had a forgettable Solheim debut last year, joined Korda and Coughlin by winning all three of her matches.

Pettersen benched Leona Maguire, a valuable contributor in the last two Solheim Cups who has played poorly this year, for both sessions. Rookie Albane Valenzuela also sat out all day, while Charley Hull and Pedersen played four matches each.

Hull delivered. The excitable English player hit a 300-yard-plus drive on the par-4 18th to set up a wedge to tap-in range by Esther Henseleit for a 1-up victory in foursomes over Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho, then did it again as she and Georgia Hall beat Corpuz and Lilia Vu 2 up in better ball.

Lexi Thompson improved her record in alternate shot to 7-2-1 in what is likely her final Solheim Cup, teaming with the unbeaten Coughlin to make four birdies in six holes on the back nine and beat Maja Stark and Hall, 4 and 3.

Thompson and Ewing were beaten 2 and 1 by Ciganda and Pedersen in fourballs. Ewing has lost her last six Solheim Cup matches.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Europe's Anna Nordqvist hits from a bunker on the 15th hole during a Solheim Cup golf tournament fourball match at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)

United States' Rose Zhang smiles after winning a fourball match on the 14th hole during a Solheim Cup golf tournament at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

Europe's Emily Pedersen celebrates winning a fourball match during a Solheim Cup golf tournament at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

United States' Rose Zhang celebrates after hitting out of a bunker and into the cup on the 13th hole during a Solheim Cup golf tournament fourball match at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)

United States' Rose Zhang, right, is congratulated by teammate United States' Andrea Lee after hitting out of a bunker and into the cup on the 13th hole during a Solheim Cup golf tournament fourball match at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)

United States' Alison Lee, center, reacts flanked by celebrating caddies after finding the cup from the fairway on the second hole during a Solheim Cup golf tournament fourball match at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)

United States' Megan Khang celebrates after making a putt on the 14th hole during a Solheim Cup golf tournament fourball match at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

Europe's Anna Nordqvist hits from the fifth tee during a Solheim Cup golf tournament foursome match at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)

United States' Lexi Thompson smiles after winning a foursome match during a Solheim Cup golf tournament at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)

United States' Lauren Coughlin hits from a bunker on the 10th hole during a Solheim Cup golf tournament foursome match at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)

United States' Ally Ewing hits from the 18th fairway during a Solheim Cup golf tournament foursome match at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Europe's Esther Henseleit celebrates after winning a foursome match during a Solheim Cup golf tournament at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Europe's Charley Hull celebrates after winning a foursome match during a Solheim Cup golf tournament at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)

United States' Nelly Korda hits from the first fairway during a Solheim Cup golf tournament foursome match at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)

United States' Nelly Korda celebrates after sinking a putt on the 10th hole during a Solheim Cup golf tournament foursome match at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)

United States' Nelly Korda, left, is celebrates with teammate Allisen Corpuz after sinking a putt on the 10th hole during a Solheim Cup golf tournament foursome match at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Gainesville, Va. (AP Photo/Matt York)