Church in Central Germany or to the Evangelical Church of Hesse Electorate-Waldeck (Schmalkalden region). Catholic dioceses are Erfurt (most of Thuringia), Dresden-Meissen (eastern parts) and Fulda (Rhön around Geisa in the very west). Politics National Thuringia is a stronghold for the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the party emerged as the largest in Thuringia in the 2021 national elections. In 2017 the party got 22.7%, while in 2021 they got 24.0%. List of Ministers-Presidents of Thuringia October 2019 state election |- bgcolor=#E9E9E9 |- | colspan=9 align=center| |- ! colspan="2" | Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- ! Seats % |- |style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" | | align="left" | The Left (Die Linke) | align="right" | 343,780 | align="right" | 31.0 | align="right" | 2.8 | align="right" | 29 | align="right" | 1 | align="right" | 32.2 |- |style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" | | align="left" |Alternative for Germany (AfD) | align="right" | 259,382 | align="right" | 23.4 | align="right" | 12.8 | align="right" | 22 | align="right" | 11 | align="right" | 24.4 |- |style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" | | align="left" |Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | align="right" | 241,049 | align="right" | 21.7 | align="right" | 11.8 | align="right" | 21 | align="right" | 13 | align="right" | 23.3 |- |style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" | | align="left" | Social Democratic Party (SPD) | align="right" | 90,987 | align="right" | 8.2 | align="right" | 4.2 | align="right" | 8 | align="right" | 5 | align="right" | 8.9 |- |style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" | | align="left" | Alliance 90/The Greens (Grünen) | align="right" | 57,474 | align="right" | 5.2 | align="right" | 0.5 | align="right" | 5 | align="right" | 1 | align="right" | 5.6 |- |style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" | | align="left" | Free Democratic Party (FDP) | align="right" | 55,493 | align="right" | 5.0 | align="right" | 2.5 | align="right" | 5 | align="right" | 5 | align="right" | 5.6 |- ! colspan=8| |- |style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" | | align="left" | National Democratic Party of Germany | align="right" | 6,044 | align="right" | 0.5 | align="right" | 3.1 | align="right" | 0 | align="right" | ±0 | align="right" | 0 |- |style="width: 1px" bgcolor= align="center" | | align="left" | Others | align="right" | 54,179 | align="right" | 4.9 | align="right" | 1.4 | align="right" | 0 | align="right" | ±0 | align="right" | 0 |- !