Sorbian village bucks far-right trend in eastern Germany

While the far-right AfD boasts strong support across eastern Germany, a tiny village inhabited mainly by Sorbs, a Slavic minority, has emerged as a pocket of resistance against the controversial party.

Crostwitz has "regularly recorded (the AfD's) worst election results" in the whole of Saxony state, one of the party's traditional strongholds, Marko Klimann, the conservative village mayor, told AFP.

The quaint rural community has even been described in the local press as a "conservative island in a sea of blue", the colour of the AfD.

Klimann, 43, puts this down to "cultural differences".

While the 1,000 or so residents of Crostwitz "are conscious of their values and their origins", the AfD is obsessed with an idealised past and wants to "turn back the clock to the old days", he said.

Crostwitz, where Sorbian is more widely spoken than German, is a tight-knit community where everyone pitches in.

Like the majority of the 60,000-strong Sorb community in Germany, the villagers are devout Catholics and families have an average of three to four children.

Some of them have erected crucifixes in the streets, complete with shiny gold Jesus statues, and the gravestones in the cemetery are lined with neatly trimmed pansies.

Crostwitz has long had a history of resistance.

The Nazis tried to completely assimilate and Germanise the Sorbs, but around 400 still declared themselves as Sorbs in a census, according to the mayor.

Around two-thirds of these rebels were from Crostwitz.

- Far-right 'faith' -

But even Crostwitz has not been immune to the growing popularity of the AfD ahead of European elections on June 9 and key regional elections in three parts of Germany in September.

"Confidence in democracy is waning. I'm relatively sure that the AfD vote will unfortunately increase," Klimann said.

The AfD is already polling strongly in Upper Lusatia in Saxony state, home to two-thirds of the community that settled in Germany in the 6th century.

The same is true in Lower Lusatia in neighbouring Brandenburg, where the Sorbs are known as Wends.

Though support for the AfD has dipped at the national level after a series of scandals, its popularity in Saxony and Brandenburg appears to be holding strong.

Like voters across Germany, Sorbs have been driven to back the far-right party by fears over immigration, inflation and infighting in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's uneasy coalition government.

Far-right voters "are very numerous, and that hurts", said Rafael Ledschbor, editor of the Sorbian newspaper Katolski Posol.

As a Christian from a minority background, voting for a party that "sometimes acts inhumanely and excludes others" sounds like a contradiction, he said.

Ledschbor believes voters have an irrational "faith" in the AfD, pointing out that church attendance among the Sorbs has fallen sharply in recent years.

- Traditional culture -

Around 30 kilometres from Crotswitz, the Krabat-Muehle Schwarzkollm cultural centre in Hoyerswerda organises a traditional festival every year in the spring.

Sarah Gwiszcz, a fashion designer who was presenting her latest collection inspired by traditional Sorb costumes, said the upcoming European elections will be a crucial test for the Sorbian community.

"We are a recognised minority here in Germany", with the Sorbian languages taught in schools and appearing alongside German on road signs, said Gwiszcz, a Wend from Brandenburg state with a thick head of dark dreadlocks.

"But in the future, we won't be able to preserve (our) traditions if we don't get support. And it's important that there are representatives who can stand up for us and speak on our behalf in a much broader context."

The centre's manager, Tobias Zschieschick, said he was not interested in politics, but denied having any sympathy with the AfD.

"What I want is for us to understand each other -- whether we are Sorbs, non-Sorbs or from another country," he said.

ilp-fec/hmn/rox