AfD party’s landslide win in eastern Germany tests country’s ‘firewall’ against the far right

BERLIN (AP) – Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has established itself as a significant political force in the 13 years since its founding, but it has never been part of any state or federal administration.

What happened

That firewall faces its biggest test after AfD won a landslide victory in Sunday's election in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Germany's mainstream parties have long remarked they would not work with Alternative for Germany. It is classified by Germany's domestic intelligence agency as an extremist group in some regions of the country – including the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. Any dealing by mainstream parties with AfD is particularly sensitive in view of Germany's Nazi past.

Plenty of Germans had believed their country had developed an immunity to nationalism and assertions of racial superiority after confronting the horrors of its Nazi past through education and laws to outlaw persecution.

The bottom line

Taken together, the developments around afD partys landslide win in eastern Germany tests countrys firewall against the point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.