For the radicals of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) to secure 44% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, one of Germany’s 16 states, has shocked a country that built its postwar identity on the rejection of extremes. IT WAS NOT supposed to happen. For Germany, it is a red alert .
A party that employs unrepentant former neo-Nazis and has been formally decreed “extremist” by Germany’s intelligence service is on the cusp of becoming the first populist-right group to run a state since the second world war.
Germany’s centrists long thought they could keep AfD at bay. Their Brandmauer (firewall) policy excluded it from coalitions. In the meantime, they hoped, good policy would curb its appeal. But the opposite has happened. Its manifesto for Saxony-Anhalt, which called for a radical reshaping of the state’s education, culture, media and civil service, was a fantasy. Still, close to half the state’s voters were drawn to it. What should it do instead? First, it must not let the AfD stun it into inaction. But the SPD, which increasingly appears to find governing a burden rather than a blessing, is now considering reversing sensible policies such as ending early retirement. Such was the delicacy of the compromise that unravelling one proposal could imperil others. True, many of the reforms are unpopular and AfD voters in particular dislike change, but this would be an abdication of responsibility. For the coalition to relapse into do-nothing bickering would also bolster the AfD’s claim that the old parties are tired and useless. Germany’s economy is at last showing signs of recovery. The government should lean into it. Second, it is past time for the CDU to reconsider the rigid Brandmauer. That does not mean kneeling before extremists; the AfD’s stated goal is to destroy the CDU, not to work with it. And the CDU should not enable the entry to government of a party that opposes so much of what it stands for. But if the CDU signalled that it would not dogmatically exclude future co-operation with a party that shed its most radical ideas and politicians, it could eventually help boost the (relative) moderates within the AfD, some of whom are uneasy about their extreme comrades. The AfD’s strength and confidence makes this harder than it once would have been. But an AfD that looks closer to Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy would be far preferable to the one that now sits on the outer fringe of Europe’s right-wing populists.
Because germany’s creaking economy and welfare state require urgent upgrade, that is not only.
Behind the Brandmauer the AfD has radicalised as it has grown, pursuing racist fantasies of “remigration”, rapprochement with Russia and exit from the European Union and euro.
Before the summer, Mr Merz’s dysfunctional coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) approved an ambitious set of reforms covering everything from income tax to pensions.
