Germany and France face the cordon sanitaire trap

A sweeping victory by a far-right party in Germany carries an unavoidable symbolic and unsettling weight, even when it comes in a regional election in the small state of Saxony-Anhalt. The reaction has therefore been intense, both inside the Federal Republic and beyond it.

But the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, did not win an absolute majority in Sunday’s vote. That leaves Europe facing a different question, one that has become increasingly difficult and recurrent: should mainstream parties build a cordon sanitaire to prevent the far right from taking power?

The editorial argues that the dilemma does not stop at Germany’s regional level. In France, similar strategies to unite against populists are being considered with the 2027 elections in view. Yet the effort to block these parties can also feed the anger it is meant to contain.

That creates the central trap. By presenting a broad alliance as the only way to keep the far right out of government, established forces may help anti-system voters portray themselves as the only genuine alternative. The attempt to isolate populists could therefore reinforce the very political appeal it seeks to limit.