“For all the talk of a political earthquake in Germany, the nationalist right’s success in two state elections in the former east came with plenty of warning,” Bloomberg reports.
“The impact is reverberating through Berlin regardless.”
“As projected, the Alternative for Germany placed first in Thuringia yesterday, the first time the far right has won a regional election since the days of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as the Nazis. The anti-immigration, pro-Russia AfD took second place in the neighboring state of Saxony.”
“In truth, the shock is overdue: The AfD was already the second-largest bloc in each state parliament. Nationally, its breakthrough was in 2017 when it became the main opposition party in the Bundestag.”
New York Times: Takeaways from East Germany’s state elections.
