For decades, Germany's political scene has rejected the mere idea that any far-right party could govern a state within the complex German federation. Whether in the divided Germany that prevailed from the post-World War II era until the fall of the Berlin Wall, or in the unified Germany built from the early 1990s onwards, the topic stirs historical wounds in German society, which views the Nazism of the last century as something beyond the humanitarian limit that must not be crossed.
What was once a mere concept within the German profession has taken shape and strength, and the party Alternative for Germany (AfD), a group established just over ten years ago and typicallyregardedby German state intelligence as a dangerous far-right entity,emerged as the principal winnerin regional elections in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt over the weekend.
The party secured 44% of the votes, making it the dominant force in the state parliament, responsible for selecting the next leader who will govern the state. To achieve a majority, it will face explicit resistance from nearly all political forces in Germany: a kind of "sanitary cord" woven by parties ranging from left to right, designed to isolate the AfD as much as possible. No deals or supports are expected.
However, it is precisely in Saxony-Anhalt that an apparent contradiction prevails: the most left-wing party in the parliament, known as Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), has already signaled that it may facilitate the AfD's ambitions by abstaining from voting in the (simple majority) selection of the next government. So far, the AfD has won 39 out of 83 seats in the local legislature. With a potential abstention by the BSW, the votes of the far-right parliamentarians would be sufficient to choose the new government. The candidate presented as the strongest contender for the position was Ultich Siegmund, from the AfD.
What led a former state of East Germany to choose, at this historic moment, a radical right-wing slogan to govern it? The answer is not simple, as nothing is exactly simple in a country marked by late unification (consolidated only in 1871, under Otto von Bismarck's leadership), by the painful defeat in World War I, by the rise and fall of Nazism, by its reconstruction capacity, and countless internal divisions. The topic, indeed, was the subject of the latest episode of the podcastThe Foreigner, available on theBrazil of Factchannels. Check out the full videocast:
For journalist and historian Rafael Targino, a researcher at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the historical process resulting from the latest unification helps explain the AfD's victory. "The restructuring process of Germany, with the fall of the Wall, created a region that was effectively incorporated. People lived in a system that provided jobs, housing, education, and healthcare. A closed system that was criticized but provided guarantees to the population. And then there was reunification with capitalism. This alters the dynamics of people's lives," he contextualizes in a conversation with theBrazil of Fact.
Targino highlights that attributing the AfD's victory solely to historical roots would be simplistic, and one must understand the current dynamics. "The party has managed to capture a discontent that is very strong today in Germany and, to some extent, around the world. It is a discontent with the political system itself. The name of the slogan is suggestive:alternativaThe German impasse.
The German Stalemate
As a result of this crisis, numerous companies have declared bankruptcy or closed factories and retail points, worsening the employment situation. According to data from the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Halle (IWN), the insolvency rate among partnerships and capital companies in the country in June was 80% higher than the average recorded in June between 2016 and 2019, immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic.
In this European country, these two categories of businesses account for approximately 90% of the jobs affected by insolvencies and nearly all the credit involved in such processes. The same institute revealed that the number of insolvencies in 2025 was the highest in the past two decades, totaling 17,600 cases. Just in the industrial sector, 11,000 companies ceased operations last year.
Crisis scenarios like this often affect the populations of eastern German states. Reunification, in broad terms, led to a significant portion of the region's population moving west. Although the former East German states make up just over a third of the country's current territory, the eastern population only constitutes 15%.
Such crises tend to disproportionately affect the populations of eastern states. The liberal economic model has not overcome social inequalities in the region. Widespread privatizations hindered the promises made at the beginning of the 1990s, and the liberalization of that period fell far short of its promises.
The particularity in the region of the former RDA is that, precisely this generation, with its RDA past, and its children, were the first to experience how they were lured into the capitalist system through false promises.Brazil of FactGerman political analyst Carsten Hanke, a former member of the party Die Linke (The Left) and an independent political observer. Born in the 1960s in Rostock, Hanke points out that the right to free education and medical care was a hallmark of the former communist Germany, and that the country was among the top ten most industrialized nations in the world, despite Western sanctions.
The role of BSW and the implications of AfD's victory.
The acronym founded by Sahra Wagenknecht, former member of the European Parliament, emerged from her dissatisfaction with Die Linke (The Left), established in 2007 through the merger of the Democratic Socialist Party (PDS) and the Electoral Alternative for Work and Social Justice (WASG). Since then, BSW has advocated not only for the need of social protection and a stronger German state presence in the country's economy, but also for critiques of migration policies and identity agendas. Like AfD, BSW calls for an end to Germany's financial support for Ukraine in the war with Russia.
For the case of the election in Saxony-Anhalt, BSW initially argued that the best solution would be to form a "non-partisan" government, capable of engaging with various parties. Given the impossibility of the proposal, the party admitted it will abstain in the election of the new state premier, clearing the way for the definitive arrival of AfD in power.
By abstaining in the vote for the state government president regarding AfD, BSW is guilty of strengthening fascism," summarizes Carsen Hanke. The analyst challenges the sanitization barrier erected against AfD, acknowledging the seriousness of the rise of the far-right in the country, but pointing out that it is necessary to understand what has been driving part of German society to adhere to the party's agenda, in order to address it effectively.
"The error lies simply in the fact that politics is not made for one's voters, and by raising a 'sanitary cord', the very opportunity to regain these disappointed people through conversations and joint activities is eliminated. Not all AfD voters are far-right or even fascists; on the contrary, they are citizens who are frustrated with the system and the way this politics is conducted. In turn, BSW recognized this, and for that reason, it is marginalized by other parties. The right approach would be to find, together with BSW, a way to conduct politics in the interest of the common people," Hanke reflects.
One of the dilemmas facing German society is that the AfD has been able to attract voters who would have previously voted for the right and also for left-wing parties. According to a survey conducted by Infratest Dimap, 67% of voters stated that the AfD better understood than other parties that the people in Saxony-Anhalt no longer felt safe. Additionally, over 50% of the electorate also believes that the AfD is closer to the concerns of the people than other German political parties. This preference is even higher among younger people, who rarely point to the Christian Democrats or Social Democrats (two of the parties that have made up the German political establishment in recent years) as capable of providing satisfactory responses to the country's future challenges.
According to Hanke, the German left lacks a strong, united political force that "defends the rights of the working class, the socially vulnerable, and the disadvantaged, and also maintains the internationalism so necessary among all progressive movements."
For the future, it remains to be seen if the weekend victory will propel the AfD to even greater heights, and how German society can organize itself to prevent a repeat of history. Commenting on the election results, Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed being "deeply shocked" and accused the AfD of promoting "ethnic cleansing."
For Rafael Targino, it is unlikely that the parties with the most political clout will start cooperating with the AfD. Nevertheless, according to the historian, the outcome of the weekend could have been "a taste of what might happen from here on."
The messages to Europe as a whole were also delivered. The Spanish Prime Minister,Pedro SánchezThe outcome, according to the official, was described as “a warning that theThreat from the far right"Thanks in part to the traditional right's surrender, it is gaining ground in Europe and around the world." Meanwhile, countries such as Spain itself, as well as Italy and France, are preparing for elections in 2027. In France, the far-right party National Rally (RN), led by Marine Le Pen, appears as the favorite for thePresidential electionsNext April. From a minor political party to the main threat to German democratic institutionality, AfD, mixing past and present, may have shifted the European political axis.