Bavaria election: Toxic campaign heralds big vote for Germany's populists

Social Media · October 7, 2023

Voters in Germany's largest state, Bavaria, choose a new parliament on Sunday, after a very nasty election campaign in which populist upstarts have rattled the status quo.

The far-right AfD, tied in second place, is hoping for a big result.

Its leaders say they are being physically attacked or threatened.

But their opponents accuse them of twisting the truth for political gain, by playing into a narrative of victimisation.

Either way the debate is unusually toxic.

Days before the vote, Tino Chrupalla, the co-leader of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), was taken to intensive care after feeling unwell during an election rally in Bavaria.

The party describes it as a "physical attack" and AfD supporters on social media are convinced that Chrupalla was injected with a toxin.

Police are investigating, but so far say they have no evidence he was poisoned.

Mr Chrupalla is now out of hospital, but it could take another few days for the results of tests to be confirmed, during which time speculation is only growing.

In September, the AfD's other co-leader, Alice Weidel, was taken by Swiss police from her home in Switzerland to a safe house because of security concerns. The party says there was a risk of an attack against her and her family.

A few weeks later, she delivered a speech to a rally via video link rather than in person because, according to the AfD organisers, "she wasn't allowed out of the safe house" for her own safety.

In fact she was on holiday abroad. On the same day as the rally, she was spotted in a beach restaurant in Mallorca with her partner.

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