Calls by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead of key state elections next month to abolish postal voting triggered backlash on Monday, with a senior government figure stressing that there was “no need for change.”
AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla caused a stir on Sunday when he claimed that it was “undisputed” that the postal voting system was sometimes abused in nursing homes.
Chrupalla, in an interview with public broadcaster ARD, said he had been told by carers and relatives of cases “where the pen was, so to speak, guided.”
His comments came two weeks before crucial state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, where the anti-immigrant AfD is far ahead in the polls and hoping to cling its first-ever state government.
Chrupalla said that it was clear in the eyes of the AfD that “that postal voting, which was introduced as an exceptional measure, should be abolished again.”
Thorsten Frei, a leading figure of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), swiftly rejected the call, saying that there were “good reasons” to give citizens the option to vote by postal ballot.
Germany’s electoral system, including postal voting, “enables the greatest possible participation for all those who wish to take part in elections. And that is why I see no need for change in this regard,” he said.
FILE PHOTO – Thorsten Frei, chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, arrives at the meeting of the CDU Executive Committee at the Union’s federal headquarters, the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus. (is associated with: «Call by Germany’s AfD to abolish postal voting causes backlash») Michael Kappeler/dpa