A mayoral race in a small city highlights the rise of Germany's far-right AfD party
The German city of Nordhausen is best known as the location of the former Nazi concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora BERLIN -- The German city of Nordhausen is best known as the location of the former Nazi concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora. On Sunday, a mayoral election again put the focus on the municipality of 42,000 people over fears that a far-right candidate would win the vote — a prospect the town ultimately seems to have avoided. Preliminary results Sunday night showed Joerg Prophet, a candidate from the populist far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, losing the race to incumbent mayor Kai Buchmann, who is not affiliated with a political party. After an initially close race while votes were counted, Buchmann had 54.9% of the vote, compared with 45.1% for Prophet, according to the news agency dpa. The results were a surprise after Prophet entered the race as the frontrunner: Earlier this month, he won 42.1% of the vote in the first round of the election, far ahead of Buchm...