Germany news: Far-right AfD loses mayoral runoffs in NRW

Twelve people have been injured, four of them seriously, after two public buses collided in the northern port city of Hamburg, the fire department said.

The injured victims included children, they said.

The cause of the accident remains unclear. 

Lufthansa on Monday confirmed reports that it intends to cut 4,000 administrative positions by 2030.

The airline group said the cuts were part of moves to digitize, automate and consolidate processes.

The measures aim to “position the group for the future” while generating “sustainably attractive returns for shareholders,” it said.

The Lufthansa Group, which, alongside its core brand, also operates SWISS, Austrian and Brussels Airlines and holds a minority stake in Italy’s ITA, most recently had around 103,000 employees. 

Lufthansa said it also plans to put its various airlines under tighter central control in a bid to boost profitability.

Among other things, it says it will strengthen the low-cost carrier Eurowings and the logistics and maintenance units, with the latter expected to expand into the defense sector.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul is visiting Poland on Monday amid growing tensions surrounding ongoing alleged provocations by Russia, including recent violations of NATO airspace.  

Wadephul was first meeting with his counterparts Radoslaw Sikorski from Poland and Jean-Noel Barrot of France for talks in the so-called Weimar Triangle format.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha is also expected to join the meeting.

Later, Wadephul will give a speech on European security and deterrence capabilities at a security forum.

The visit comes two and a half weeks after Russian drones entered NATO member Poland’s airspace during one of Moscow’s strikes on neighboring Ukraine.

Some of the drones were shot down by the Polish Air Force and other NATO allies.

Ahead of the trip, Wadephul said that while Poland and Germany were not going to allow themselves to be forced into any escalation, “we are leaving no doubt that we are determined and ready to fend off any threat together.”  

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has failed to take town halls in Sunday’s three runoff mayoral elections in Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia. 

Candidates from the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) beat their AfD opponents in the cities of Gelsenkirchen and Duisburg, while the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) of Chancellor Friedrich Merz won in Hagen.

According to preliminary state results, however, the AfD almost tripled its share of votes in councils and district councils to 14.5%, which put it in third place behind the SPD on 22.1%.

Almost 150 runoff elections were held on Sunday two weeks after local elections, including several mayoral contests and duels for district administrator offices.

The runoffs elections became necessary in cases where no candidate received more than 50% in the first round, with a simple majority sufficient to win in the second round.

Guten Tag from DW’s newsroom on the banks of the Rhine in Bonn!

Runoff elections in Germany’s most-populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) have been topmost in many people’s minds. The failure of candidates from the far-right AfD to win mayoral contests in three major cities has come as a relief to those who fear that the party represents a danger to democracy.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to travel to Düsseldorf to celebrate his Christian Democratic Union’s (CDU) win in the NRW capital city.

In other news, Germany’s national carrier Lufthansa is planning to slash 4,000 administrative positions over the next five years.

Meanwhile, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues to dominate the agenda for European countries including Germany. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul is in Poland to meet with his French and Polish counterparts to discuss measures in face of growing alleged provocations from Moscow.

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