"A serious moment for Europe": the victory of Alternative for Germany makes the continent tremble
The results of Saxony-Anhalt have been read as an omen of the penetration of the extreme right into the political front line
BrusselsThe most feared forecasts for Brussels have come to pass. For the first time since the fall of Nazism the German far right has real options to govern a state. The results in Saxony-Anhalt have fallen like a bucket of cold water on the community capital, where the victory of Alternative for Germany (AfD) is read as a harbinger of the penetration of this intolerant ideology not into the hemicycle –where it has had a few seats reserved for some time– but into the front line of executive power. A reading contrary to that made by the most populist leaders, who see the results as a political springboard.
"A very worrying sign". With this expression, the first two European capitals to assess the results of the German regional elections, Paris and Warsaw, have reacted, while Brussels remains silent. "We are facing a major challenge in the face of a populist wave that is spreading across the world today and which we must resist," said the French Minister of Finance, Roland Lescure, this morning. Hours earlier, the French Minister for European Affairs, Benjamin Haddad, said that the elections in Saxony-Anhalt mark "a very grave moment for Europe" and called for listening "with humility" to "the anger, the fears, and the concerns" of the citizenry in order to be able to provide a response.
The alarm in the capitals does not arise only from the possibility that the AfD ends up governing the state –where the rest of the forces are weighing the possibilities of forming a fragile sanitary cordon–, but from the underlying diagnosis that they share: the victory of the ultra formation is symptomatic of a transversal malaise throughout Europe. And this, with the presidential elections in France in 2027 on the horizon, raises fears of an accelerated erosion of traditional parties and a European Council tilted further to the right than ever.
In contrast, the most populist and far-right forces have seen in the Saxony-Anhalt scrutiny the validation of their political project. "Another Europe is possible," said the Italian Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, on Sunday night. The "overwhelming success" of Alice Weidel's party, asserted Salvini, "highlights the strong demand for change, security, and work." The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, and the Portuguese extremist André Ventura have also weighed in. Abascal has described the results as a "great hope for Germany and for Europe," and the president of the far-right party Chega has celebrated that Germans are "opening their eyes against illegal and uncontrolled immigration."
