The Irish Times view on a win for the AfD in Germany: the far-right gains support

Robert Sesselmann, a local lawyer, has rocked Germany’s political boat. The first politician from the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) elected Landrat, the equivalent of head of a county council, he has singlehandedly forced mainstream politicians to contemplate collaboration with the previously untouchable decade-old party.

The AfD upsurge comes as in other European states similar young anti-immigrant parties also appear likely to step from the margins into power-wielding office. Notably in Spain where Vox, now the third largest party in congress, has made serious regional gains.

The beachhead for the AfD came in a small, relatively wealthy town of Sonneberg, population 56,000, on the back of widening public dissatisfaction with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrat-led government. Sesselmann’s campaign slogans were typical AfD: close the borders to refugees, protect women from Islam, lift sanctions against Russia. Continued alienation felt by the former East Germans from the German mainstream and Berlin played no small part.

With refugee numbers returning to 2015-16 levels, voters wary of military support for Ukraine, and embittered by government plans to ban domestic gas heating systems, the Social Democrats nationally have fallen from 25 per cent last year to 18 per cent, behind the surging AfD. Polls suggest the latter is on course to win three critical state elections in eastern Germany next year – in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg.

How to make the most of the Leaving Cert run-in: Study tips, social media and taking breaks

---

In pictures: Bruce Springsteen rocks Croke Park on a sunny Sunday evening

---

Emerging Ireland tour of South Africa may yield stars of the future

---

Tony O’Reilly obituary: Ireland’s first business superstar whose spectacular fall led to bankruptcy

---

The Thuringia branch is particularly extreme. It is led by the popular Björn Höcke, who has flirted with Nazi rhetoric and was leader of its now disbanded far-right völkisch wing. Like elsewhere, however, attempts by AfD to clean up its Nazi-apologetics and racist associations have lacked credibility – Germany’s domestic intelligence agency says some 10,000 of the AfD’s 28,500 members are extremists.

The AfD is a force to be reckoned with. Sesselmann’s election is an ominous harbinger of difficult times ahead for German democracy.