section_path: History/Chrupalla and Weidel (2022–present)
section_name: Chrupalla and Weidel (2022–present)
paragraph_text: Chrupalla and Weidel (2022–present)
  
  AfD held their three seats in the 2022 Saarland state election. At the same time, they lost all their seats in the 2022 Schleswig-Holstein state election. In the 2022 Lower Saxony state election in October, AfD won 9 more seats compared to 2017 to a total of 18. In the 2023 Berlin repeat state election AfD recorded a small upswing by gaining 4 seats compared to the 2021 election. In the 2023 Bremen state election AfD did not participate and lost all their seats, as the Bremen electoral committee had barred AfD from the election due to internal divisions that had resulted in them submitting two lists of candidates. The Citizens in Rage, another right-wing party, participated instead; they received 10 seats (after having only one seat in 2019) in Bremen's state parliament. On 25 June 2023, amidst rises in polls, Thuringia 's AfD won its first district election in Sonneberg. In the run-off election held on 2 July, the AfD candidate Hannes Loth won against the independent politician Nils Naumann, becoming AfD's first ever mayor.
  
  On 8 October state elections, AfD significantly increased its share in Hesse where it became the second-biggest party (+9 seats) and in Bavaria, where it became the third (+10 seats).
  
  Observers considered the increase of support for the AfD as not being limited to the local level. Opinion polling for the 2025 German federal election conducted in early July 2023 showed that the AfD polled more than the SPD, achieving second place behind the CDU/CSU alliance. The SPD co-leader said a ban should be considered if the AfD is categorized as a group of "proven Right-wing extremists" by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Friedrich Merz, the CDU leader, warned that "banning parties has never actually solved political problems". Germans are evenly split on a ban, with 47 per cent in favour and 47 per cent against; the ban is more popular in the west and among liberal Greens.
  
  In December 2023, Tim Lochner of AfD was elected Mayor of Pirna (Saxony), he became the first mayor of a city with more than 20,000 inhabitants to be a member of the party.
  
  In 2023, the AfD saw 86 violent attacks on AfD party representatives. This was more than on any other German party.