In the early evening, optimism dominated.
AfD Bundescheffer Jörg Meuthen spoke of “consolidation”.
The Bundestag parliamentary group leader and Baden-Württemberg state chairman Alice Weidel saw a “very solid result”.
But the positive interpretations contradicted the negative signs of the numbers more and more: In the course of the projections it became apparent that the party's share of the vote in both federal states was a good deal lower than in the state elections in 2016.
In this respect, the AfD did not really pass one of its many tests that evening. It could not build on the fact that five years ago in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg, in the first major elections after the immigration of refugees, it achieved spectacular results of 12.6 and 15.1 percent from the state.