The German establishment is terrified, but as with any declining establishment, it fears the wrong things for the wrong reasons.
The massive victory of the AfD in the Saxony-Anhalt elections, in which the party reached a near-majority of all votes in an election where six parties split the vote, is rightfully seen as a deadly threat to the prevailing order.
The AfD won 39 of 83 seats in the state parliament, a near-majority. The CDU (Christian Democrats, a center-right party led nationally by Friedrich Merz and previously by Angela Merkel) had previously held 40 seats in parliament but won only 15 after its vote fell by more than half. The Social Democrats, the center-left party, held steady.
The establishment reads the election result as if it is a threat to world peace, assuming that a rejection of the German centrist consensus that the German state must be subsumed into a larger European and eventually worldwide technocratic government is an endorsement of Nazism.
Or at least that is what they are saying. You cannot read an establishment news source or listen to an establishment politician without hearing the words "far right" either preceding or quickly following the words Alternative für Deutschland. They interpret any rejection of the center-left or center-right as equivalent to embracing totalitarianism.
The establishment has been toying with the idea of banning the AfD outright and has been harassing its members and supporters for years. Its members have been barred from holding some positions of responsibility, and the other German parties have agreed never to work with them, creating what they call a "firewall" to keep them from gaining influence. With the victory in Saxony-Anhalt, there is new talk of outright banning the party.
Ich warne vor Schnellschüssen beim #AfD-Verbot. Das Verbot einer Partei kann nur der letzte Weg sein, um unsere Verfassung zu schützen. Deshalb sollten wir jetzt eine Bund-Länder-Arbeitsgruppe zum verfassungsrechtlichen Umgang mit der AfD und etwaigen Rechtsfolgen einsetzen.(1/3) pic.twitter.com/A1nSoTwwPp
— Hendrik Wüst (@HendrikWuest) September 8, 2026
I warn against hasty actions regarding the #AfD ban. Banning a party can only be the last resort to protect our constitution. Therefore, we should now establish a federal-state working group on the constitutional handling of the AfD and any potential legal consequences.(1/3)
Es geht insgesamt um die Frage, wie der Staat verfassungsrechtlich mit einer Partei umgeht, die mindestens in einzelnen Bundesländern verfassungsfeindliche Ziele verfolgt. (3/3)
— Hendrik Wüst (@HendrikWuest) September 8, 2026
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, constitutional lawyers, and experts from the federal and state governments should participate in this. This examination must be open-ended and consider all possible legal consequences—not just a prohibition procedure. (2/3)
It is ultimately about the question of how the state is to deal with a party, constitutionally speaking, that pursues at least in individual federal states goals hostile to the constitution. (3/3)
The CDU is still maneuvering to keep the AfD out of power, even in Saxony-Anhalt, and to permanently restrict its access to power in Germany.
All to "save democracy."
What nobody in the establishment seems to understand, or at least refuses to understand, is that the AfD's rise is entirely the result of the failure of the establishment's consensus policies. The problem is not the AfD; it's the CDU and all the so-called centrist parties.
Their economic policies are deindustrializing Germany. Their immigration policies have torn Germany's social fabric apart. Their censorship policies have mirrored those of the Stasi. It's not the AfD that is dragging Germany to a totalitarian state. It's the establishment, which has been transforming Germany into a failed state along the lines of a soft East Germany.
The post-war consensus among the transnational elite that created the path to the European Union and a Europe-wide transnational government was that nation-states caused the wars of the 20th century, and that self-government leads to world wars. The transnationalist ideology grew out of a sincere desire to prevent a repeat of World War I and World War II. Technocracy and the elimination of the state were solutions to a problem that had destroyed Europe.
Germany, naturally, embraced this ideology most strongly for obvious reasons. The Nazi regime scarred all of Europe, but nowhere so deeply as Germany.
The problem with their solution is obvious: doing the opposite of what the Nazis did is not the cure for Nazism. Nations exist for a reason, and simply because too much patriotism or nationalism is a bad thing does not imply that wiping away cultures and political unions will somehow cure what ailed Germany and Europe in the 20th century.
The rise of the AfD and other populist parties doesn't stem from a desire of European populations to dominate the world. It's more about self-preservation. The influx of migrants from Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries has been a total disaster, and the transnational economic consensus is hollowing out once-prosperous countries.
The CDU and Social Democrats don't yet realize it, but they are losing because they are no longer legitimate political powers with the consent of the governed. It's not the AfD pushing authoritarianism, although the longer the current states fail, the more likely that outcome becomes; it's the German and European governments.
In their attempt to save the "centrist" consensus, they are reaching for every lever of power at their disposal, suppressing popular dissent.
You don't alleviate dissent by banning it; you respond to the popular will. When your population tells you that the influx of millions of third-worlders is ruining the country, the solution is not to censor people for saying so. It's to adjust policies to prevent a popular uprising.
European countries are rushing toward civil conflict, and it's the establishment that is ensuring it will come. The messages from the electorate are clear, whether it be in Italy, Germany, the UK, or any other European country. The Nordic politicians have read the tea leaves and are adjusting.
Nobody else seems to be. Hence the rise of Reform, AfD, and other populist parties.
Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.
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