Over the weekend, a thunderbolt reverberated through German politics as the right-wing, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party took home a thumping victory in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, receiving 43.8 per cent of the vote. Its next-closest rival, the centrist Christian Democratic Union (CDU), came in a distant second at 17.2 per cent. Notable were the vote differences from 2021: the AfD's share went up 23 points, while the CDU lost nearly 20 points. Read More