Greens and far-right AfD excluded from election ticket in two German states

The German Greens faced a major setback Friday when they were excluded from the ticket in Saarland for September’s German election, while the far-right Alternative for Germany(AfD) was hit with a similar exclusion in Bremen.

The disqualifications — which election committees said were down to irregularities in the candidate nomination process — are not yet definitive, and both parties said they would appeal the decisions, German media reported.

Although Saarland, which has 0.7 million eligible voters, and Bremen, which has 0.5 million, account for just a small amount of the 60.4 million eligible voters in Germany, the exclusion of the parties risks affecting the outcome of the election on September 26. Disqualification, albeit only at the regional level, is also embarrassing for both parties.

In Saarland, the expulsion of the Greens followed an internal fight over the nomination of the regional lead candidate. In a controversial last-minute move, the party switched its lead candidate from Hubert Ulrich to Jeanne Dillschneider. Several party members complained about irregularities in the nomination process, and regional election administrator Monika Zöllner said Friday that the Greens had committed a “severe electoral error,” according to public broadcaster Saarländischer Rundfunk.

In Bremen, the regional election committee said the AfD had failed to provide a sworn declaration that it had complied with electoral law, according to the election oversight blog Wahlrecht.