You haven’t seen this movie before. This time Germany’s sharp lurch to the right is the phenomenon to watch.

It’s one thing for Finland or Belgium (the Flemish separatist Vlaams Belang party heads the polls) to veer onto a far-right rail. When it begins to happen in Germany, however, it’s time to start plotting an escape route.

Over the past year, support for the anti-immigrant, pro-Russian Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has nearly doubled to more than 20 percent in POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, a record.

The party is now in second place, just five percentage points behind the center-right Christian Democrats. Over the summer, the AfD has also succeeded in widening its lead over the Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats.

  • @CanadaPlus
    3•10 months ago

    One thing I think doesn’t get mentioned enough is that the European far-right has pretty representative demographics, while the American equivalent is all old and/or uneducated people. They have completely different makeups and probably completely different sociology.

    Whether that makes the European version a terrifyingly viable challenge to democracy or likely to merge into the mainstream right without drama is up for argument.