Success of extreme parties in Germany; what does political psychology say?
On September 6, 2026, state parliament elections were held in the East German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The big winner of the elections was the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which won 43.8% of the vote, the most ever.
It is still unclear who will form the state government, as the "Alternative for Germany" party does not have an absolute majority.
But it was a decisive victory for the "Alternative for Germany" party; a party whose Saxony-Anhalt branch was classified as far-right by Germany's domestic intelligence service, a matter that worries many Germans.
A day after the elections, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the conservative Christian Democratic Union said he was "deeply shocked" by the election results. He added: "Yesterday something changed, not only in Saxony-Anhalt, but throughout Germany." Merz's Christian Democratic party lost more than half its vote share compared to the previous state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. The party's votes dropped from 37.1% in 2021 to 17.2% in 2026.
Two weeks later, in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state elections on September 20, 2026, the Christian Democratic Union did not even receive the five percent threshold required to enter parliament.
This event happened for the first time in the history of the Christian Democratic Union. This party won only 4.9 percent of the vote in the northeastern German state. Once again, the "Alternative for Germany" party became the strongest party with 38.2% of the vote.
On the same day, in the state of Berlin, the socialist Left party won the elections and may form the government of Germany's capital state. In Berlin, the Christian Democratic Union became the second most powerful party and the Alternative for Germany came in third.
The elections in these states show that extremist parties on both sides of the political spectrum are becoming more powerful in Germany. This country has experience with far-right and far-left governments in its history: the Nazis who led Germany into World War II and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) that ruled East Germany from 1949 to 1989.
Meanwhile, a return to radical politics is a frightening prospect for many people.