Germany is holding its breath this weekend as there is a seismic election in the country’s east.<\/b><\/p>\n
The Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland party is aiming to secure a majority in the regional parliament of Saxony-Anhalt.<\/p>\n
An outright win would mark the first time a far-right party has held state-level power in the nation’s post-war era.<\/p>\n
For the AfD’s opponents, this is a point of serious peril. But the party sees it as a stepping stone towards its dreams of nationwide power.<\/p>\n
This is an election that could change German history.<\/p>\n
The result could also spell fresh trouble for embattled conservative (CDU) Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as rumours persist about whether he can see out his term in office.<\/p>\n
Booed during recent public appearances, Merz is hardly seen as an electoral asset.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the chancellor regrets a pledge to halt the rise of the far right, given that the exact opposite has happened.<\/p>\n
By contrast, the charismatic AfD lead candidate in the state – Ulrich Siegmund – appears to have enjoyed dominating discussion and media coverage.<\/p>\n
Dubbed “Germany’s Most Dangerous Man” by Der Spiegel magazine, he has brushed off reports that people previously in the neo-Nazi scene are among those to hold influential roles around him.<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old can often be seen, including in his own many social media posts, amongst adoring crowds or happily riding a retro East German scooter.<\/p>\n
A lingering nostalgia for the past, alongside an acute dissatisfaction with the present, has fed the party’s popularity in its eastern strongholds.<\/p>\n
Voters voice frustration with immigration, public safety, Germany’s struggling economy, high energy costs and aid being sent abroad to countries like Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany is holding its breath this weekend as there is a seismic election in the country’s east. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1186968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":["post-1186967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-germany"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117215739610609158","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1186967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1186968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1186967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1186967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1186967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}