We democratic Europeans have put our hands to our heads seeing that in Saxony-Anhaltthe AfD has just achieved around 44% of the votes in a historic victory. We ask ourselves why, especially in Germany, which has made the memory of its past a collective responsibility. But the thing is that history does not repeat itself because we forget it. It repeats itself when we manage to convince ourselves that this time is different.Regrettably, remembering does not guarantee learning. Historical memory can coexist with psychological mechanisms that, in situations of threat, frustration, or loss of trust, make precisely the solutions we know can be destructive attractive. When people perceive that their world is threatened, fear reorganizes priorities. We have a recent example of this in Ceuta. The threat can be economic, cultural, territorial, or physical, but whatever it may be, it always increases the need forsecurity, order, control, and belonging. And the threat does not need to be objective to be psychologically effective: it is enough that it is perceived as real. Symbolic threats can be as powerful as material ones. It is in this context that authoritarian discourses find fertile ground: they promise protection, offer certainties, and simplify the world.

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.

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.

While traditionalist left-wing and right-wing forces across Europe are "shocked" by the overwhelming victory of Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt, far-right parties are not hiding their joy. Also here at home. Aliança Catalana has shown its happiness for the triumph of the AfD candidate, Ulrich Siegmund, in this state of the former East Germany.

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.

The German intelligence services have classified Alternative for Germany as an extremist organization, the far-right party that this Sunday swept the elections in the eastern federal state of Saxony-Anhalt with 44% of the votes. If it ultimately comes to govern (it fell just three seats short of an absolute majority and depends on the support of the pro-Russian nationalists Sahra Wagenknecht), the party wants to impose decisive changes that threaten basic democratic rights. These are the most prominent points of the electoral program that has led the AfD to a historic result and which could allow the far-right to govern a German state for the first time since Nazism.

If there is one thing the far-right does well, it's playing the victim. Since they present themselves as anti-system, any criticism they receive from the media is used to claim that the establishment is persecuting them, etc., and it's usually a discourse that resonates with their followers and from which they benefit. A textbook example has occurred these days in Germany, when the magazine "The Mirror has published a cover with a close-up photo of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidate in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, and the headline: "Germany's most dangerous man".

Riot police have clashed with protesters demonstrating against the congress of the far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), in the streets of Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia. Police reported that 20,000 protesters were demonstrating in this city in eastern Germany, where Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla have been re-elected co-chairs of the party before decisive regional elections, in which the AfD could come to state power for the first time.

The war between the United States and Israel against Iran has reactivated internal disputes within the German far-right. Within Alternative for Germany (AfD), a Trumpist wing coexists with a critical sector that increasingly distances itself from the occupant of the White House. The far-right party sought to get closer to Trump after his return to the White House. They share with him the rejection of immigration, climate change denial, and criticism of the European Union. However, with the start of the war against Iran, AfD leaders are again trying to distance themselves from Washington.

Ahead of the regional elections in March, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a conservative, is searching for the best way to combat the far right, which he has long considered a "tough rival" and probably his party's "biggest political rival." The leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has categorically rejected any cooperation between his party and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the main opposition party, although some conservative voices have raised the possibility in recent months of opening up to some form of cooperation with the far right.

The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) The AfD has relaunched its youth wing in an attempt to improve its image ahead of the 2026 regional elections. Far-right leader Alice Weidel emphasized that Generation Germany—the name of the AfD's new youth wing—will be the party's "talent pool." Although founded just a week ago, the youth organization is already under scrutiny from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the intelligence service of the German Interior Ministry. Generation Germany takes over from the AfD's former youth organization, Alternative Jove, which was considered too radical and difficult to control, even for the far-right party's leadership, and classified as far-right by German authorities. Its status as an independent association made it more vulnerable to a potential ban, which could have severely damaged the party's image. The AfD leadership therefore decided in March to dissolve Alternative Jove and create a new, less extreme organization more closely linked to the party. This makes its banning legally more difficult and increases Weidel's control. Experts believe it cannot be banned unless the entire organization is. Members of Alternativa Jove will also be members of the AfD, unlike before. In this way, rule violations or misconduct by AfD youth members can be sanctioned, even with expulsion from the party.

When the global financial crisis broke out, a young German economist was preparing her doctoral thesis while living in China. She worked at the Bank of China and had become fluent in Mandarin. A few years later, upon returning to Germany, she joined the AfD. Now Alice Weidel is the candidate of the extreme party right in the upcoming German elections.

He Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán Orbán has entered the German election campaign on Wednesday by supporting Alice Weidel, the leader of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is second in the polls for voting intentions for the German elections on 23 February. Orbán considers the far-right leader to be "the future of Germany". "All points of the AfD programme benefit Hungary, above all on the migration issue," said Orbán at a joint press conference with AfD held in Budapest.