Thomas Kemmerich of the centrist Free Democratic Party walked away from the leading the central German state of Thuringia on Thursday.
The decision came a day after he had been elected leader of the state’s parliament in a vote in which he had accepted support from the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, the Christian Democratic Union, had also voted for Kemmerich’s party. Kemmerich and Merkel’s parties are both center-right.
The vote was significant — and sparked nationwide protests — because it represented the first time the far-right AfD had helped form a government in the country. Kememrich said he stepped down to allow reelections. Two thirds of the parliament will need to vote for that to happen.
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Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in a statement said the resignation was “the only acceptable” action.
“We cannot have a government that is beholden to the AfD; not in the state of Thuringia, and not anywhere,” he said.
Jewish and Muslim groups in Germany have expressed fears about the rise of the nationalist and anti-immigrant AfD party.