AfD’s electoral triumph is a watershed, regardless of whether it gets to form the Saxony-Anhalt government

First published in Respekt. From the perspective of the people of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, much remains at stake on Monday (7 September). Following Sunday’s election (6 September), a record turnout of around 80 percent and more than 44 percent of the vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) have made one thing clear: The positions of a party deemed extremist by the state’s domestic intelligence service have become the new social centre ground in the former east German state of Saxony-Anhalt. They include proposals to fly German flags in schools; for theatres and galleries to deliberately support culture that strengthens German identity; to stop constantly seeking lessons from the Nazi-era in history classes and, in an effort to overcome the alleged “cult of guilt”, instead devote greater care to memorials for German victims of the world wars. Parents who object to the state’s influence over their children in civics or history lessons should be able to educate them at home. And “culturally foreign” workers should no longer be allowed to arrive. In international politics, the EU should be limited to free trade — and if not, Germany should leave it. A sovereign Berlin should no longer allow itself to be constrained by the EU or by the interests of smaller European states, but act as an independent power player in a new concert of powers alongside Moscow, Beijing and Washington. Germany should once again buy gas from Russia, because it is cheap and good for industry. And the fate of Ukraine or the Baltic states? That depends above all on German voters. Similarly, Germany should not address the global climate, the fate of refugees from distant conflicts or poverty at its own expense. AfD voters in Saxony-Anhalt are not unaware of this. I spoke with many of them during two pre-election reporting trips, and they sympathise with these views — or rather, with the nationalism and selfishness concealed within them. They said things such as: “I vote for them because of their programme; I like it,” or: “They want things that I had previously missed in politics.” Sunday’s election night was therefore momentous because it demonstrated the shift of the nationalist positions mentioned above — until recently marginal in German politics — into the mainstream. The AfD and the entire nationalist movement, which includes book publishers, magazines, influencers, online media and think tanks, are succeeding in fulfilling the objective their leaders set from the outset: to shift the boundaries of what can be said in German politics and in public. Their aim is to spark, in their words, a “conservative revolution” against the liberal and cosmopolitan direction of post-war Germany, shaped in particular by the student movement of the 1960s.