AfD Earns Third Consecutive Strong Performance

Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutchland (AfD) political party lost to the ruling Social Democratic Party (spd) by less than 2 percentage points in elections held Sunday in the state of Brandenburg.

Why it matters: The spd has ruled Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin, since Germany’s 1990 reunification. This close race, alongside the AfD’s previous strong performances in Thuringia and Saxony, shows that the nation’s political scene is shifting to the far right.

In all three of the AfD’s recent strong performances, it received around 30 percent of the vote. In Saxony, where it also lost by less than 2 percentage points, the party that beat it is also right wing.

Details: The spd beat the AfD 30.7 percent to 29.5 percent. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is a member of the spd. Had his party lost, it could have brought him down.

Finishing in anything but first in Brandenburg—where the spd has governed since the reunification—would have probably been the final blow to Scholz’s hopes of running for a second term as chancellor.
—Kate Brady, German political analyst

Sunday’s election marked the final one before federal elections next year. If the current rightward shift continues, it could bring profound change to Europe’s political scene.

Learn more: Read “Nazism Rises Again in Germany.”