On Sunday, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first far-right party to win a German state election since 1945. The results in two east German Länder sent shockwaves of fear and despair across Europe. Rightly so. In Thuringia, the smaller of the two states, the AfD topped the polls. In Saxony, it ran a close second to the center‑right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Although these were state elections in AfD strongholds, the outcome was particularly troubling for Germany’s ruling coalition parties, especially with federal elections just a year away.
The backdrop to these state elections could hardly have been less propitious for the governing parties, especially the Social Democrats (SPD) led by Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor. In August, the AfD moved to capitalise on the fatal stabbing of three people in the west German city of Solingen, for which the Islamic State has claimed responsibility. The alleged perpetrator of the attack is a Syrian asylum seeker. Mr Scholz found himself caught between some in his own party, who cautioned against kneejerk responses, and his main opponent, the CDU’s Friedrich Merz, who called for an end to accepting refugees from Syria and Afghanistan. Mr Scholz found that he couldn’t outbid the right on immigration and asylum, leading some to wonder if his hardline pronouncements had only validated the positions of extremists.
