Europe’s centre fears nationalist wave after AfD victory but only has itself to blame

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• The Guardian
  Europe’s centre fears nationalist wave after AfD victory but only has itself to blame

  <p>Saxony-Anhalt win part of wider trend driven by mainstream policy failures and gradual normalisation of far right ideas</p><p>The numbers speak for themselves: Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a party that dabbles in Nazi imagery, distinguishes between “biological” and “passport” Germans, and is too extreme even for France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen, nearly doubled its score in Sunday’s state election in Saxony-Anhalt to 43.8% of the vote.</p><p>Meanwhile, the centre-right CDU of the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, collapsed to 17.2%, less than half its total in the same race five years ago, and the centre-left SPD – Germany’s other main party of government for the past 60-odd years – scraped 9.3%. The least that can be said is that the centre did not hold.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/07/afd-germany-far-right-saxony-anhalt-nationalist-wave-europe-analysis">Continue reading...</a>

  Mon, 07 Sep 2026 16:13:05 GMT

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1. 2026-09-07 16:13The Guardian — Europe’s centre fears nationalist wave after AfD victory but only has itself to blame