Europe’s centre fears nationalist wave after AfD victory but only has itself to blame

• 01In the Sunday state election in Saxony-Anhalt, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) received 43.8% of the vote, nearly doubling its previous score.
• 02The centre-right CDU received 17.2% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, less than half its result in the same race five years ago, while the SPD received 9.3%.
• 03The AfD won 39 of the 83 seats in the Saxony-Anhalt parliament, leaving it just short of an outright majority.
• 04Germany’s domestic intelligence service officially classifies the AfD’s local branch in Saxony-Anhalt as a “confirmed rightwing extremist” organization.
• 05Research led by Matthijs Rooduijn found that nearly one in four voters in Europe cast their ballot for far-right parties in their most recent national elections.
• 06The proportion of Europeans voting for far-right parties rose from roughly 5% in 1995 to 10% a decade ago, and to more than 23% in 2026 according to the analysis of 31 countries.
• 07Far-right populist parties are part of ruling coalitions in Croatia, Czechia, Italy, and Finland, and prop up a rightwing minority government in Sweden.
• 08Geert Wilders’s Freedom party (PVV) lost nearly a third of its seats in the Netherlands last year, and Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz was defeated by a centre-right rival in Hungary in April.

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The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) secured 43.8% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt’s state election, becoming the strongest political force in the region despite lacking a majority. This result reflects a broader European trend where support for far-right parties has risen to over 23% in recent national elections, driven by mainstream political failures and the exclusion of far-right groups from governing coalitions.