The Alternative for Germany (known by its German initials, AfD) won handily in an election held in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt Sunday, garnering a historic 44 percent of the vote. The election marks the AfD’s biggest electoral success since its founding in 2013, and suggests that the hard-right party’s mixture of nationalism, populism, and opposition to mass immigration is increasingly popular among German voters.
Despite trouncing its rivals—the next highest vote-getters were the Christian Democratic Union, with 17 percent, and the Social Democratic Party, with 9 percent—the AfD still may not be able to form a government. It is likely to fall three seats short of a majority in the state legislature, and most of Germany’s other parties, which see the AfD as a threat to democracy, have committed to excluding it from power by keeping up a “firewall” (though the small BSW party has not ruled out cooperation, and it may also be possible for the AfD to peel off individual legislators).
Sunday’s result comes amid what many see as rising fortunes for right-wing populists across Europe: in France, Marine Le Pen appears to be the frontrunner for next year’s presidential election, while in the UK, recent polling shows Nigel Farage’s Reform Party about even with the governing Labour Party.
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