Speaking of WWII

The far right is on the rise again in Germany.  (Same as many places in Europe, and in the US.)

Five million Germans are eligible to vote on Sunday in Saxony and Brandenburg in election battles that could have a resounding impact on the federal government in Berlin and have been fuelled by debates on the success and failures of German reunification, with the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall coming this autumn.

The anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) faces its first real electoral test in the region. At the last state election, five years ago, the party was just a year old and lacking clout.

Today, two years after entering the national parliament for the first time, buoyed by its opposition to the arrival in Germany of almost 1 million refugees during the crisis of 2015, it has made sizeable gains.

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[In Saxony] it is expected to take half or a third of seats from the CDU, which in 2014 secured 59 out of 60 constituencies.

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The parties that have uninterruptedly dominated the region’s politics since reunification in 1990 – the Christian Democrats (CDU) in Saxony and the Social Democrats (SPD) in Brandenburg – are braced for heavy losses.

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Analysts agree that if the AfD tops the polls it will represent the biggest political earthquake for Germany since the end of the cold war, marking the first time a rightwing populist force has taken control in postwar Germany.

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“The AfD is not the cause of the upset we’re seeing, neither is it dividing society,” said Andreas Kalbitz, the AfD’s leading candidate in Brandenburg, fresh from an election rally. “The AfD is the consequence of the failure of others.”

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His contacts with far-right sympathisers have made repeated headlines in Germany in recent months as he positions himself to oust Dietmar Woidke, who has been Brandenburg’s state premier since 2013. Those headlines continued last week when he admitted he had attended a neo-Nazi rally in 2007 in the Greek capital, Athens.

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All parties have ruled out going into coalition with the AfD, meaning that tense negotiations almost certainly lie ahead.

  

Germany's new Hitler: Andreas Kalbitz, leading AfD candidate:

I'm sure he and Trump will become fast friends.