A “shock” or a “little Swiss moment”: Switzerland watches AfD’s success in Saxony-Anhalt

The AfD’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt has sent a political shockwave as far as Switzerland. The party won 43.8% of the vote on Sunday, a sweeping result matched by the CDU’s near-mirror defeat.

The scale of the breakthrough has focused attention in Switzerland because it marks the far-right party’s first such historic success since the end of the Second World War. Swiss political parties and figures are now weighing what the result means from across the Rhine.

The Social Democratic Party and the Centre have offered their views. The Swiss People’s Party, the party most often compared with the AfD in Switzerland, has taken a more cautious line. Its vice president, Céline Amaudruz, declined to comment, saying the matter concerned foreign policy.

Roger Köppel, editor in chief of Weltwoche and a former Swiss People’s Party national councillor, showed no such restraint. He described the result as an event recalling the Swiss party’s first successes, framing the German breakthrough through a distinctly Swiss political reference point.