An eastern German region was voting Sunday in an election that could bring to power the first far-right state government in the nation’s post-World War II history.
The vote for the state legislature in Saxony-Anhalt, a region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin, has gained outsized prominence because it represents the best chance yet of a governor’s post for the far-right, anti-migration Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
That would be the biggest prize in the party’s 13-year history, at a time of widespread discontent with an unpopular national government that has yet to persuade voters it can get the country’s sluggish economy moving. It would be at least a symbolic blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose center-right party has led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years.
The formerly big parties discuss just outlawing the party. Actually tackling the problems of the people in the economically weak regions was sadly never seen as an option.