When over forty per cent of voters support parties outside the political centre, it is hardly possible to exclude them from government responsibilities. Yet a creeping normalisation of the language and behaviour of extremists, on both the right and the left, is taking place. This is evident in the reversal of responsibilities following 7 October

Tobias Rausch, an MP from the far-right party, has been elected President of the Saxony-Anhalt State Parliament. For Merz, things are not looking any better now.

Today, anyone who votes for the AfD is labelled a neo-Nazi, with the paradoxical result of strengthening the bond between the voter and the AfD leadership. However, as Céline Teney explains, “the electorate as a whole is significantly more moderate than the party itself”.

The Christian Democrats have hit an all-time low in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, with the AfD making further gains. Yet the Chancellor has ruled out resigning.

Alternative für Deutschland is in the lead, according to exit polls (SPD at 35.5 per cent). Collapse for the CDU. Merz: “A disastrous result”

In the capital, the AfD is not making as big an impact as it did in the regional elections. The Socialists of Die Linke and the Christian Democrats of the outgoing mayor, Kai Wegner, are vying for the mayoral seat, with both parties neck and neck at 20 per cent in the polls

“The woman against the blues” and “Ready for the blue shift”: in the northern state, there is a clear division and strong scepticism towards Berlin. Amid the uncertainty, it will be the parties polling below 5 per cent that make the difference

Germany’s democratic parties should look at what has happened in Sweden and force the AfD to gradually become a more acceptable party 

"A splendid ruin": the property- and relationship-related misadventures of a couple renovating a house (or rather, a manor house) in the former GDR