Rise of Germany’s far right shakes Europe’s political foundations: ‘A very strong warning signal’

The Alternative for Germany’s decisive victory in Saxony-Anhalt has opened what the article describes as the first serious crack in the power structure that has held European politics together since the Second World War.

AfD won 43.8% of the vote in the eastern German state on Sunday. The Christian Democratic Union of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, which leads the governing coalition in Berlin, fell to 17.2%. Its junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats, secured only 9.3%.

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This result is not an exception, it is a signal to the rest of Germany and Europe.

For the first time since the Nazi era, a German state could be led by a far-right force. AfD regional leader Ulrich Siegmund could become minister-president if the far-left BSW chooses to support him or abstain in the vote. The result also delivered another blow to an already deeply unpopular government in Berlin.

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We are on the way to becoming the leading governing party in the country, and I am convinced that at the next European elections we will return to the European Parliament with more than twice our current strength.

René Aust, head of the AfD delegation in the European Parliament, called the result a signal to the rest of Germany and Europe. “This result is not an exception, it is a signal to the rest of Germany and Europe,” he told Euronews. Aust said the party was on course to become the country’s leading governing party and expected to return to the European Parliament with more than twice its current strength at the next European elections.

Other European lawmakers played down the immediate impact. Andreas Schwab of Germany’s European People’s Party said Saxony-Anhalt was only one of Germany’s 16 states and that AfD had no real power in Berlin, where the grand coalition holds a clear majority. Svenja Hahn of Renew Europe said democratic forces could retain a majority in 2029 only by delivering economic growth and prosperity while reducing the regulatory burden on people and businesses.

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Saxony-Anhalt is a small part of Germany. One of 16 states.

Even so, the result is likely to raise alarms across Europe. Germany’s tradition of grand coalitions helped underpin the political consensus at the center of European integration for much of the postwar period. The center-right EPP and center-left Socialists and Democrats have formed the backbone of Brussels politics, sometimes with Renew Europe. The rise of extremist parties and the continuing erosion of the political center now challenge that arrangement.

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We can maintain a democratic majority in 2029 only if we finally deliver economic growth and prosperity and reduce the regulatory burden on people and businesses.