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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Philip Oltermann European culture editor

Success of far-right AfD shows east and west Germany are drifting further apart

AFD Germany Björn Höcke Democracy Saxony GDR Thuringia
Björn Höcke raises his arms in the air as he walks down steps
The AfD’s Thuringian leader, Björn Höcke, has won at least 30% of the vote in the state election. Photograph: Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

After the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, the former West German chancellor Willy Brandt predicted that reunification would finally allow “what belongs together to grow together”.

How optimistic that image of organic healing sounds 35 years on. Tonight’s historic election results from Thuringia and Saxony paint a picture of a Germany whose eastern and western regions are, if anything, drifting further and further apart.

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