Hans-Georg Maaßen will probably miss his direct mandate and would therefore not be a member of the Bundestag.
His candidacy was considered controversial.
South Thuringia - In the run-up to the federal election in 2021, he was actually expected to have a good chance of entering the Bundestag.
It is now pretty certain: Hans-Georg Maaßen has lost.
After counting more than 400 of the 418 electoral districts, his opponent, the SPD candidate and former biathlon Olympic champion Frank Ullrich, is clearly ahead.
Hans-Georg Maaßen: Right wing statements in the election campaign
Maaßen stood for the Union in constituency 196 in southern Thuringia. The candidacy of the ex-constitutional protection chief was controversial, the federal CDU never clearly positioned itself to Maaßen, which during his election campaign, among other things, spoke out against the observation of the constitutional protection of parties. The 58-year-old made headlines again and again through his right wing statements. That probably didn't help him. After counting the majority of the constituencies, Maaßen only got 22.3 percent of the vote. SPD candidate Ullrich is a long way off with 33.6 percent, and a race to catch up does not seem plausible. On the contrary: Maaßen could slide even further, the AfD candidate Jürgen Treutler currently has 22.3 percent.
In the run-up to the election, the Greens decided to take a bold step.
They called for the first vote to be given to the SPD candidate Ullrich.
The election of Ullrich would protect democracy and prevent a “vote open to the far right” from moving into the Bundestag - this is how the Greens' executive director, Michael Kellner, told the newspapers of the
Funke media group
two and a half weeks before the election
.
(leb / dpa)