Across Germany – and Europe more widely – there has been a palpable sense of shock and disbelief after the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) swept to a historic state election victory in the early hours of Monday. It was, according to France’s European affairs minister, Benjamin Haddad, “a very grave moment for Europe”. The resonance was stark in the UK too: as the results came in, hundreds of black-clad activists intent on blocking migrant arrivals were battling with police for a second night along England’s south coast.
While seasoned observers stress the context that Saxony-Anhalt, a small state in the former communist east of the country, has traditionally voted further to the right, a red line has been crossed. A far-right party has been propelled to the brink of power at regional level in Germany for the first time since the Nazis – despite 13 years of increasingly desperate efforts by mainstream parties to shut them out of government. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to the Guardian’s Berlin correspondent Kate Connolly from the state capital Magdeburg, and our Europe correspondent, Jon Henley, about why Germany’s famous firewall against the far right has failed, and what happens next.
First, this morning’s headlines. UK news | Batons and synthetic pepper spray were used to repel hundreds of masked, black-clad vigilantes in Portsmouth on Sunday, it has emerged, as the policing minister said officers had been injured as they repelled organised “aggression”. Israel | Ed Miliband will announce what he has described as a broad reset of the UK’s relations with Israel on Tuesday, promising the government will take a more active approach in supporting the Palestinian cause.
US | The Trump administration has raised “serious concerns” over Downing Street’s plan to force digital platforms to hand more prominence to established broadcasters, warning the move risks “facilitating censorship”. Climate crisis | Nepal is demanding $20m in climate compensation for the recent devastating floods, as a senior minister called on the world’s most polluting countries to “wake up” and accept shared responsibility. UK politics | There is little appetite for cuts to disability benefits even among Conservative and Reform voters, and proposals to reduce spending could prove politically risky, according to an authoritative national survey.
The first person Kate spoke to when she arrived in Magdeburg on Monday afternoon was a paramedic named Eric, who was fundraising for a local hospice. He explained how his father had spent years working to obtain a German passport after migrating from Guinea. I know from experience how difficult it can be to persuade strangers to elaborate on their private voting decisions – especially when you have copy to file in a hurry – but yesterday was different, she said: “Everybody had very profound thoughts to share.” She described conversations with a “heartbroken” older couple, who had grown up under communism; a 16-year-old who arrived from Syria under Angela Merkel’s open borders policy in 2015 and was frightened she would be first on the list to send back; another woman who’d voted for the AfD and said she didn’t appreciate being “tarred with the same brush” as supporters of Hitler in the 1930s.
Kate interviewed her as they stood by a Stolperstein, a memorial plaque to a victim of Nazi persecution. As we spoke, thousands were gathering at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to express their opposition to the AfD, and where there was a palpable sense of disbelief and dread as news of the results filtered. The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, was elected leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 2022 on a pledge to halve the AfD’s vote.
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