AfD Shakes Foundations of ‘Firewall’ as Trump and Musk Hail Rightist Resurgence That Could Remake Europe

The blowout victory by Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany in Sunday’s regional election in the state of Saxony-Anhalt underscores the party’s power — despite falling shy of the outright majority that would have delivered it the reins of power. The results are being hailed as a breakthrough by those at Washington and Moscow who see the AfD’s rise as a revolution in the political order of Europe’s largest economy and one of the continent’s military bulwarks. President Trump, seemingly supportive of the outcome, reposted a screen shot of the election results. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, wrote “well done” in German. He has previously argued that only the AfD could “save” Germany. The AfD’s lead candidate at Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, thanked Mr. Musk “for your support and for your clear and highly important perspective on the political developments of our time.”The AfD garnered some 44 percent of the vote, more than doubling its support from five years ago. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union came in second at 17 percent. That party has ruled Saxony-Anhalt for the last 24 years. The AfD will hold 39 out of the 83 seats in the state parliament, three seats shy of what was required to govern alone. The party’s showing is a watershed in European politics — the first time since the Second World War that a party of the far-right has exhibited such electoral strength. The AfD won the most votes of all parties in every age group, and turnout as a whole came in at a record 78 percent. The AfD has ruled out joining a coalition, and the rest of Germany’s parties have long maintained a brandmauer, or firewall, against the far-right.The AfD’s rise, though, is imperiling that political boycott. Even before the party’s win at Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD was polling at 28 percent nationally, making it the post popular party nationally. In Germany’s most recent national election, the AfD garnered 21 percent of the vote. Chancellor Friedrich Merz is currently supported by a mere 13 percent of the population. The brandmauer, though, means that the party sits in opposition to the governing coalition. Mr. Merz, at a press conference on Monday, called himself “profoundly shocked” by the results and declared that “I promise the people in our country: our institutions are defensible and stable. We know that Germany, because of its history, bears a special responsibility. We will always hold up our constitutional order and our secure place in the heart of Europe.”The AfD’s national leader, Alice Weidel, claims that Sunday’s results hand her a “mandate to govern.” She said she expects that Mr. Merz will be deposed “before Christmas.” “We ran on a clear platform of representing the interests of our country — not those of Ukraine or any other country,” Ms. Weidel said while vowing to “cut all unnecessary spending” and “deport all those required to leave the country and all criminals. We will close the borders.” The AfD’s win was also hailed by a presidential envoy of President Vladimir Putin, Kirill Dmitriev, who called the AfD the “party of reason, cooperation, truth, and hope for Germany. Other German parties decline because they do not learn from AfD and follow Bidenthink.” The AfD has pushed for Berlin to adopt a foreign policy posture that prioritizes warm ties with Moscow.Germany’s domestic intelligence agency found last year that the AfD’s “ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order.” That finding was used to support categorizing elements of the party as “extremist,” though a verdict on the AfD as a whole would have to be delivered by Germany’s highest constitutional court. Ms. Weidel’s vow to close the borders, eliminate social benefits for migrants, and carry out Germany’s largest deportations could become a template for future successful elections throughout the continent. French voters will go to the polls for president next spring. A rightist, Marine Le Pen, leads the polls there by some 20 percentage points. An election is due in Spain by August, and in Italy by the end of next year. In the United Kingdom, the rise of Nigel Farage’s rightist Reform Party has been complicated by a series of scandals. A senior member of the AfD, Beatrix von Storch, told The New York Sun last year that she backs Mr. Farage and that she and Ms. Le Pen are “on the same team.”

AfD Shakes Foundations of ‘Firewall’ as Trump and Musk Hail Rightist Resurgence That Could Remake Europe

AfD Shakes Foundations of ‘Firewall’ as Trump and Musk Hail Rightist Resurgence That Could Remake Europe

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