Hard right wins first German election since WW2

When polls closed last night in two state elections in Germany, the result, while predicted, still felt like a shock: the Alternative for Germany (AfD) was expected to win in Thuringia, the first time a far-right party has won a regional election in Germany since World War Two. In neighbouring Saxony, the AfD was on course to come in second, 1.1 percentage points behind the conservatives. The AfD is not about to take power in a state government, since all other parties have vowed to unite against it (although it could have enough seats to block some decisions including judges’ appointments). And these states are small, with a combined population of about 6 million in a country of 84 million. But the results are disastrous for Olaf Scholz’s coalition, with all three ruling parties falling to single digits a year out from national elections. And it spells a broader move towards extreme political parties: a new far-left party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), was expected to come third in both states. “There is a huge lack of trust in politics that has to end,” said Saxony state leader Michael Kretschmer. “We need another political style in Berlin.”