Far-right AfD wins local election in ‘watershed moment’ for German politics

Central Council of Jews says it is devastated by populist party’s first victory in eastern town of Sonneberg

The far-right Alternative für Deutschland has won a district council election in Germany for the first time, in what is being referred to as a watershed moment in the country’s politics.

The eastern town of Sonneberg, in the state of Thuringia, elected Robert Sesselmann to the post of district administrator, the equivalent of a mayor, with 52.8% of the vote, ousting the Christian Democrats’ (CDU) Jurgen Köpper on 47.2%.