The extreme right of Germany suffers from a series of candidates before the local vote

Up to six candidates in the far right of Germany have died in recent weeks before the local elections in the great western state of Northern Rhine-Westphalia.

The police have clearly indicated that there is no evidence of unfair playing in death, but this means that new ballots will have to be printed and that some postal voters will have to redesign their ballots.

Northern Rhine-Westphalia has a population of 18 million inhabitants and 20,000 candidates said they were running for local September 14.

The number of deaths has nevertheless raised questions on social networks. The State Interior Ministry stressed that candidates from other parties, including the Greens and the Social Democrats, have also died.

AFD has become the second largest part of Germany in the February federal elections, also spreading from its eastern heart to the West regions.

The domestic espionage agency classified it as a right -wing extremist organization in May, before taking a break on this description due to an appeal in the process of court. In three Eastern States, its AFD associations are always listed as extremists.

The first reports focused on the news that four of his candidates had died, then the death of two reserve candidates also emerged, which caused a burst of conspiracy theories on social networks.

The AFD co-leader, Alice Weidel, made no effort to cancel speculation, republishing a claim of the retirement economist Stefan Homburg that the number of deaths of the candidates was “statistically almost impossible”.

However, asked questions about the rumors of his party, Figure number two of AFD in northern Rhine -Westphalia, Kay Gottschalk, admitted Tuesday that “what I have before me – but it is only partial information – which does not safeguard these suspicions at the moment”.

He told the Podcast Bertico of Berlin Playbook that his party wanted the business to be surveyed “without immediately embarking on the territory of conspiracy theory”. He said they had to walk carefully with the families concerned because they had lost a family member.

The police told the DPA news agency in Germany that the four initial deaths came either from natural causes or that the cause was not disclosed for reasons of family confidentiality. The other two deaths were described in the same way.

AFD strategists hope for local Rhine-Westphalia local elections, which have been considered the first voters’ test since the new federal government came to power.

During the last state elections in May 2022, AFD interviewed only 5.4% in a region which shelters the German industrial heart of the Ruhr valley and suffered from steep job losses.

AFD questioned 16.8% in the state in the federal elections last February and that the polls suggest that the party could almost equal these figures.

The party has found support among several leading American personalities on the right who accused the German government of having tried to suppress AFD by the bureaucracy.

The technological billionaire Elon Musk, who approved the migration policies of the far -right party earlier this year, has repeated his support for AFD in recent days.

“Either Germany votes an AFD, or it’s the end of Germany,” he said.