Sven Schulze: Shock. Gravity. No.

The silence at the CDU’s election gathering in Magdeburg was not the familiar quiet that follows disappointment. It reflected the shock of a dramatic break with the voters.

The figures left little room for rhetorical escape: the AfD won more than 40 percent, while the CDU remained below 20 percent. The party suffered losses and appeared to be losing support in every direction, as the voter-migration figures would show.

At CDU election parties, a poor result usually brings familiar phrases about a “difficult day” or the hope of doing better. In Magdeburg, those formulas could not conceal the scale of the defeat. The outcome confronted the party with facts it could not avoid acknowledging.

The result also fed anxiety about what comes next. AfD approaches could put the CDU under pressure and threaten to split the party over its future course.