The breakthrough of the nationalistic Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, in two German state elections last weekend had been predicted for months. When it came to pass, it still managed to drive self-styled Defenders of Democracy into a state of shock. Old wounds were alluded to. The far right, too. “Germany’s Third Reich dog-whistlers are a fringe party no more,” announced The Washington Post.
Both the elections were in eastern Germany, where the party is strongest. In Thuringia—home to Goethe, Schiller, Marx, and much of Germany’s classical culture—the AfD, led by its most radical leader, the ex–school teacher Björn Höcke, finished tops, with 33 percent of the vote. In populous Saxony, it took 32 percent, edged out narrowly by the Christian Democrats. In Saxony, the AfD was the most popular party among every age group under 45; in Thuringia, it was the most popular in every age group under 70. It clobbered all the parties of the highly unpopular center-left national government. Germany is now ruled by a coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and Liberals. In both Thuringia and Saxony, the three ruling parties together barely scraped 10 percent of the vote.
This gives only a hint of the repudiation. Sahra Wagenknecht—longtime star of the Left party, successor of the East German Communists—founded her own electoral alliance last fall. It won 12 percent in Saxony and 16 percent in Thuringia. All told, parties seeking systemic change—the AfD, Wagenknecht, and the Wagenknecht-less Left—took 47 percent of the vote in Saxony and 62 percent in Thuringia.