Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) captured around 44 percent of the vote in the small state of Saxony-Anhalt, beating the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz into a very distant second place. This is the closest a far-right party has come to power in Germany at the state level since the Second World War, making headlines around the world. Framed by the mainstream media as “anti-immigrant” with links to the country’s Nazi past, Germany's major parties, on both the left and right, have refused to go into coalition with the AfD. While the party didn’t win a majority to govern alone, signs of growing popular dissatisfaction will become hard to ignore. We ask what’s in store for Europe’s largest economy.

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