MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Voters in two states in eastern Germany have given a far-right party its best result since World War II. The outcome of yesterday's elections have political observers worried about a resurgence of anti-immigrant, populist politics in Europe. NPR's Rob Schmitz is with us now from Berlin to talk about this. Good morning, Rob.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So let's just start with what happened in these two elections yesterday.
SCHMITZ: Yeah. The elections were held in the German states of Thuringen and Saxony. Both are in the former East, which was, for decades, under communist rule, and they're both known for being home to extremist politics. But yesterday's results delivered a very big boost to far-right politics in Germany.
MARTIN: So tell us more about that. Tell us about the party that did so well.
SCHMITZ: Yeah. This party's called the Alternative fur Deutschland, or AfD. It's a nationalist party that routinely targets immigrants and blames them for many of Germany's problems. The party's been around for 11 years, and it rose in prominence after former Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed more than a million migrants from war-torn countries in the Middle East to resettle in Germany. The AfD has become so notorious that it's been placed under domestic surveillance for the threat that it poses to the country's constitution.
Now, despite all this, the AfD won the most seats in the election in Thuringen with around a third of parliament, and it nearly won the most seats in Saxony with more than 30% of the vote. But it is important to note here that all other parties refuse to govern with the AfD, so the party will likely not be part of either state's government. But it will be a big force in their parliaments, and it'll have a big influence on policymaking, regardless.
MARTIN: So you mentioned that these two states are in Germany's former East, and you mentioned that extremist politics have found a home there. So, you know, is this kind of politics particularly resonant to that region, or is this part of a bigger trend that we need to pay attention to?
SCHMITZ: Yeah, yes and yes. I mean, it's definitely resonant in this region, but it also is part of a bigger trend throughout Germany. I spoke to Sudha David-Wilp about this. She's the director of the German Marshall Fund's Berlin office, and she said the federal government in Berlin may try to brush these results aside.
SUDHA DAVID-WILP: But Berlin can't ignore these results and claim they're only distinct to the former East because all the campaign themes that played out in these two state elections are going to stay in the picture during the federal election next year.
SCHMITZ: And, Michel, you know, Germany will hold a national election in a year, as she just mentioned, and she says that frustration over unchecked migration is going to play a big part. You know, last week, a Syrian man who was supposed to have been deported murdered three people and injured several others at an event in the western German city of Solingen, and that's led to calls for tighter immigration rules.
Another concern here in Germany is support for Ukraine. Many Germans, especially those in the former East, have suffered economically from the impact of this war. And due to the region's history, they have a familiarity with Russia, and they're pushing for a diplomatic solution to end this war.
MARTIN: So, Rob, before we let you go, you were telling us that these two states are sort of a smaller population, and...
SCHMITZ: Right.
MARTIN: ...So perhaps, you know, not the big, sort of, population centers that people think of. But what will these results mean, or what could they mean, for next year's federal election in Germany?
SCHMITZ: Yeah. These two states are small, but they're important because of what happened here. And these are really far-right parties. And, you know, now that we've got a national election coming up next year, it underscores how popular these parties are becoming. You know, it's clear that in the next election, the country is going to be making a shift to the right. It might not be as dramatic as these two states, but it'll mean stricter immigration rules and a bigger focus on Germany's stagnant economy.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Berlin correspondent, Rob Schmitz. Rob, thank you.
SCHMITZ: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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