The German Far Right Marches Ever Onwards
And Europe is still stuck for an answer about what happens after Brandenburg.
For the second time in a month, the Alternative For Deutschland (AfD) has had some alarming electoral success at the state level. The Far Right party has placed second in Brandenburg behind the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and took almost 30% of the total votes cast. They were likely disappointed to be pushed into second as many polls had predicted they would place first overall.
It’s a worrying time for onlookers with even the slightest inkling of 20th-century history.
For those unfamiliar with the minutiae of German geography, Brandenburg surrounds the capital city. Berlin is famously in the Eastern half of Germany and required a special airlift of supplies and a rather large wall to remain peaceful once the relationship between the West and Soviet Union soured.
Brandenburg and Berlin were part of a single administrative region but separated in 1990 after German reunification via a clever deployment of David Hasselhoff. Brandenburg has a lot going for it, plenty of rolling hills, beautiful lakes, the historical city of Potsdam as well as huge tech investment in the Green sector.