Far-right nationalist populist parties are leading the way everywhere, from Washington to Warsaw. Why, then, be so alarmed by the small electoral victories of one of these parties, Alternative for Germany (AfD)? “Because it’s Germany!” is the almost instinctive answer in many heads around the world.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU has obtained the worst result in its history in regional elections this weekend in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. A "disaster" admitted by the chancellery and a humiliation for a Merz who, upon coming to power, promised to reverse the strength of a far-right that has been tailing him for some time. The popularity of Alternative for Germany, for the moment, has no ceiling. In Saxony-Anhalt it was on the verge of governing, for the first time, in a German state, and on Sunday it won the elections in the land of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in eastern Germany, and came in third in Berlin. While Merz's political survival is increasingly threatened, the AfD continues to grow in the shadow of economic and industrial decline, which has slowed the German engine, and a feeling of insecurity that is fueled by the criminalization of rising immigration in the last decade. But, above all, the far-right has demonstrated a great capacity to exploit voters' disillusionment with the political establishment of the Grand Coalition.

Angela Merkel held the German chancellery between 2005 and 2021, 16 years during which she exercised undisputed leadership in her country that also extended to Europe. Her formula combined economic austerity with gestures of great moral stature, such as the opening of borders to Syrian refugees during the 2015 crisis. Managing her legacy, however, is proving especially complicated for Germany, with a stagnant economy and a rise of the extreme right that was unthinkable just a few years ago.

The nightmare continues for German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz. If the defeat of his party, the CDU, and the triumph of the far-right in the state of Saxony-Anhalt two weeks ago were a shock, the results in the elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin have confirmed the deep crisis in which the traditional right-wing party finds itself. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, for the first time, it has been left out of a state Parliament and in Berlin Die Linke (The Left) has beaten them.

The triumph, for the first time, of the post-communists on this Sunday's election night in the city-state of Berlin, has a name: Elif Eralp, the candidate for Die Linke, who has come to lead the institutional progressive political space in the German capital. For the first time since reunification, this party has obtained more support than the Social Democrats, who remain last in the distribution of seats. Die Linke has also surpassed the Greens. This triumph contrasts with the global rise of the far right.

Germany's Grand Coalition is left shaken after this weekend's elections in the states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin. Both the CDU and the SPD have suffered significant electoral setbacks in elections that leave two clear winners: the far right and the post-communist left. In Mecklenburg, Alternative for Germany has overtaken the Social Democrats, who have been governing since 2017 and with whom the far right was neck-and-neck in the polls. Nevertheless, the Social Democratic candidate Manuela Schwesig will be able to continue governing as the far right has no way of obtaining a majority. The German Chancellor's party, on the other hand, has obtained its worst result in history in this state and, as of now, would remain out of the regional parliament, aggravating the internal crisis in the party. In Berlin, the CDU has been unseated by The Left (Die Linke), which wins an election for the first time with one in every four votes.

Still in shock from the far-right victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt two weeks ago, Germany is taking the temperature of the ultra-wave this Sunday in the elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and also in Berlin. The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is looking to leverage the momentum of the victory in Saxony-Anhalt to try and repeat it in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the second eastern state to head to the polls. And it could succeed, although far from an absolute majority and with few options to govern. Polls give the AfD 37% of the votes, followed very closely by the Social Democrats, currently in government, with 35%.

It is no coincidence that one of the protagonists of the election campaign in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt has been an old acquaintance for the citizens: the old Simson motorcycle, associated with the daily life of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). The motorcycle, painted blue, the color of Alternative for Germany (AfD), is the vehicle with which the leader of the far-right party Ulrich Siegmund has ridden through election events in which, even, members of the AfD have sung the anthem of the GDR.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has raised his tone against the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) with accusations of wanting to implement migration policies that amount to "ethnic cleansing" in Germany. Merz addressed the ultra-right party in this way during a debate in the Bundestag, the German parliament, regarding the 2027 budget, three days after the AfD's victory in the Saxony-Anhalt elections. The German chamber thus became the stage for the first clash between Merz and the far-right party leader, Alice Weidel, following the overwhelming triumph of the ultra-right in the small state in the east of the country and the collapse of the CDU, Merz's party.

For the first time since the defeat of Nazism, the AfD, the far right, could govern a state in federal Germany. In other words, the taboo of Nazism is collapsing overwhelmingly: with 44% of the vote and 39 seats, while the CDU goes from 40 deputies to 16. The humiliation of the German Christian Democrats is so resounding that submitting to the adversary would be a definitive surrender in the current times, with the risk of being absorbed. And paradoxes of history, everything will depend on the BSW, an eccentric and marginal left-wing party opposed to immigration, willing not to contribute to blocking the far right. A gesture that would not cease to be indicative: a left-wing party would join the growing trend on the European right of giving recognition to neo-fascism. That is to say, the reactionary impulse crosses borders: it has already swept enough on the right, now it only remains for the left to join in. In any case, whatever happens, one thing is certain: the taboo of Nazism, which had been established in the postwar period, is dissolving in Germany, which would thus join the shift towards the far right like almost all of Europe.

The elections in Saxony-Anhalt, a small state in eastern Germany, have managed to exceptionally shake up politics across the entire country. A detailed analysis of the result allows for an X-ray of the profile of voters for Alternative for Germany (AfD), which took 43.8% of the total votes, double that of the 2021 elections. We review the keys to a historic election day that could mark the path for the upcoming elections in Germany.

With a historic result of 44% of the vote, the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has fallen just three seats short of an absolute majority in the parliament of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The party, founded in 2013 during the height of the euro crisis, will not be able to govern alone as it wanted, and most parties have committed to the policy of a 'cordon sanitaire' to block its path. But the game of alliances with a small group that has managed to enter parliament still gives it the possibility of accessing power in a federal state for the first time since Nazism.

The historic victory of Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the state of Saxony-Anhalt is a political earthquake for a country trapped in existential angst. German exceptionalism is more earthly than ever. The country's economy has had six consecutive years of meager growth. The traditionally powerful industry is frightened and is demanding more protection against China and United States tariffs. The shocks of energy prices and the announced crisis in the automotive sector –now aggravated by the announcement of mass layoffs at Volkswagen– fuel a feeling of an end of an era that makes the European Union tremble.

The victory of Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt has shaken Europe, with the far-right having real options to gain power in a state for the first time since the fall of Nazism. The overwhelming ultra victory has arrived in the state of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), with economic and social indicators below those of West Germany more than 30 years after reunification. Germany is also not going through its best economic moment, with an engine that has lost power and a federal government that is trying to revive it through rearmament. We talk about the causes of the ultra victory with Steven Forti, professor of contemporary history at the UAB and expert in the far-right.

So here we are, discussing whether the AfD (Alternative for Germany, the party that won, by a wide margin, the elections in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt) is Nazi, neo-Nazi, far-right, extreme right, extremist... Let's call it what we want: eighty-one years after their defeat, Adolf Hitler's supporters have once again won an election in Germany. Now it is all exclamations, but in reality, we are facing the umpteenth confirmation of the process of the return of fascism to Europe. Regarding this process, in fact, there is no need to speculate further, because it is already a fact. Now we must ask ourselves if it has the potential to become hegemonic again, in Germany and in the rest of Europe. The answer is yes. Someone will object that the words fascism and fascists have been abused to the point of emptying them of meaning: it is quite true and, if anything, one can add that the problem is that not only have these two words been trivialized, but also many others in common use in public debate, some as central as democracy, freedom or citizenship. But no matter how much political language has been worn down, blurred, and trivialized, that does not take away from the fact that fascism exists and is once again very strong. It has various causes for which it claims to take a stand, but the main one is undoubtedly the migratory movements and demographic changes occurring throughout the West. Faced with this complex reality, fascism and the far-right have a simple recipe: distrust in institutions (even though they run in elections to govern them), discrediting of the “political class” (even though they themselves are, also, “political class”), identity retreat, nostalgia for an imaginary past era in which everything was better, scientific denialism, and enormous doses of fear and hatred towards the different and, above all, towards the poor.It has become a commonplace to point to social democracy and, in particular, the “left” as the culprits for the rise of the far right and fascism, as they have not known how to provide an answer to the issues that concern the citizenry (from the outset, any pointing of the finger at a culprit is, in itself, a victory for fascism and the far right, because finger-pointing and blaming are forms of fear and hatred). It is possible, but the traditional liberal rights do not provide an answer either, as they try not to yield space to the far rights by assuming their discourse: Merz's CDU has ended up yielding, with its anti-immigration discourse, the majority of its electorate in Saxony-Anhalt to the far right.The results of Saxony-Anhalt are a mirror, and in Spain, where there is speculation about a new judicial coup d'état to imprison the head of government and where the right-wing party and the fascist one openly add up their results in the polls, the mirror reflects an especially worrying image. Germany, Year Zero is the title of a film by Roberto Rossellini about the material, but above all moral, devastation that fascism and war bring. It is highly recommended to watch it.

The overwhelming victory of Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt represents a lesson for the Berlin government and, more directly, for the CDU, the traditional German conservative party, which leads the governing coalition at the federal level. "We are deeply shocked; we did not expect this," admitted the Chancellor and CDU leader, Friedrich Merz, in a press conference after meeting with the party's leadership. The Christian Democrats, who had been governing this small state for 25 years, have renounced attempting to form a government after losing 20% of the support they received in the previous regional elections. "We no longer have a mandate to form a government; the AfD has it," said the Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt and the Christian Democrats' candidate, Sven Schulze.

Tomorrow school begins, and it will start with the teachers' strike that the unions already announced when the school year ended, around Saint John's Day. The Government has not managed to deactivate the strike, even though it has had two months to do so. The unions feel strong and are carrying momentum based on real shortcomings, dragged on for a long time, and this protest speed of the unions cannot be stopped with a standard negotiation. Education in Catalonia needs a top-to-bottom reformulation, and the turbulence that will begin tomorrow will continue for several months. We already said it here last week: if there is any public service that requires a generous, country-wide pact, it is education. But today all the front-page headlines are for the victory of Alternative for Germany in Saxony. The far-right wins in a German state talking about closing borders, expelling criminals, and reclaiming Germany for the Germans and not for immigrants. The reasons for this victory resonate here: voters who feel abandoned by the traditional parties, who have become impoverished, who have seen the street landscape change, resentful of what they consider the failure of reunification, who pay many taxes that do not improve public services, etc.This resentment based on real events, but which is conveniently stirred up by the verbal violence of social networks, ends in a protest vote, the one that hurts the most, against the system.The problem is that these parties do not have solutions for these problems, and in the long run they only end up making things worse. And behind the anti-immigration discourse there is an anti-democracy discourse. This vote is an invitation to gradually change democracy for an authoritarian and violent system (Russia, China, Trump's United States) that seems to solve problems because it does not accept the limits of these trifles called laws or human rights.It is true that the usual parties do not provide the best answers either, and for a long time, the normal, ordinary people who used to vote for them have become fed up because they do not listen, and because they do not notice that the wonders they explain during the campaign improve their lives. Agreed, the solution to serious problems is never quick, but the lifelong parties or ideological spaces are more comfortable with dialectical fighting than defending people from powerful private interests. An example: this morning President Illa was interviewed on 3cat and he assured that the government of the Generalitat is assessing whether to take the leader of Aliança Catalana to the Prosecutor's Office, Sílvia Orriols, for her tweets about the fatal attack in Manresa.Ricard Ustrell: Will they report Sílvia Orriols' tweets to the Public Prosecutor's Office as a hate crime?Salvador Illa: Whenever it is observed that there are behaviors that violate the legal framework and that incite hatred, the Government will act. We are assessing it, and if that is the case, in this instance and with everyone we will act the same.

The 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 no longer into the hemicycle – where it has had a few reserved seats 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.

The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has swept the elections in the eastern federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, where it has remained at the gates of an absolute majority. The AfD has obtained 43.8% of the votes, more than double that of 2021 (20.8%) and only three seats away from being able to govern alone.

A charismatic 35-year-old man travels through the towns of a German state aboard a blue 1975 Simson, the legendary motorcycle of the former East Germany. At every stop, thousands of followers with his face printed on their t-shirts shout his name and queue up to get a photograph or an autograph before he climbs back onto the bike and resumes his journey. What might seem like a rock star's tour is, in reality, the election campaign of Ulrich Siegmund, the politician who aspires to make Saxony-Anhalt the first German state governed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).