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🇸🇪 Sweden /Elections & Politics

Merz faces a trap he cannot escape

From Svenska Dagbladet · () Swedish

Translated from Swedish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Opinion Named sources Outcome reported
  • The far-right Alternative for Germany won a historic election victory in Saxony-Anhalt.
  • Commentator Tomas Lundin argues that efforts to isolate the AfD have failed and Chancellor Friedrich Merz faces a painful policy shift.
  • The party is drawing on nostalgia for the former East Germany and the promise of restoring a supposedly safer past.

Germany must learn to live with the far-right Alternative for Germany, Tomas Lundin writes, after the party won a historic victory in Sunday’s election in Saxony-Anhalt. Attempts to build a firewall against the AfD have failed, leaving Friedrich Merz facing a painful change of course.

In Magdeburg, a woman sitting beside Lundin on a bus begins explaining how she sees the country. “In the GDR, we had more solidarity. We looked after each other. Today, it is all elbows.”

That feeling, that everything was better in the past and could become good again if Germans simply kept to themselves, is something the AfD exploits skillfully, Lundin argues. The longing for the supposed security of the old East Germany, known as “Ostalgie,” is gaining strength and can be used politically.

The article is explicitly presented as a commentary, with any opinions identified as the writer’s own.

In the GDR, we had more solidarity. We looked after each other. Today, it is all elbows.

· Unnamed woman on a busShe explains her sense that social solidarity has declined since the former East Germany.
About this summary

Originally published by Svenska Dagbladet in Swedish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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