BERLIN (Reuters) -Three parties in the eastern German state of Thuringia joined forces on Thursday to keep the poll-topping Alternative for Germany out of power, electing as state premier a conservative who led his party to second place behind the far-right AfD.
The AfD stunned Germany's mainstream parties in September when it became the first far-right party to win a regional election in Germany since World War Two. But all other parties refuse to cooperate with the AfD, regionally and nationally.
Mario Voigt, 47, leader of the state's Christian Democrats (CDU), won the votes of 51 out of the parliament's 88 legislators, implying he received the backing of seven members who did not belong to his coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) and the populist left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).
Voigt's appointment comes just 10 weeks before a national election in which the AfD's strength - it currently ranks second in opinion polls behind the conservatives - could greatly complicate efforts to forge a coalition government to steer Germany, Europe's largest economy, at a time of deep crisis.
The AfD is particularly strong in eastern Germany, whose painful transition from communism and integration into western Germany has forged a distinctive political culture.
The conservatives' chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz congratulated Voigt, whose state-level strategy of moving his party rightwards in order to win back voters from the far-right is similar to Merz's own at the national level.
In Thuringia's parliament, the three coalition parties together command only 44 votes, one shy of the majority Voigt needed to be elected on the first round.
The opposition Left party - heirs to the former East German Communist party - agreed on Wednesday to lend Voigt some votes in return for regular consultations on the new coalition's legislative agenda.
The BSW, with its stated opposition to arming Ukraine, is an uncomfortable partner for the CDU and SPD, who at the national level are firmly committed to backing Ukraine.
(Reporting by Thomas EscrittEditing by Gareth Jones)
