The AfD are winning elections: Is the German far-right back?

A far-right party is on the verge of forming a German state government for the first time since World War II.

The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has surged in Saxony-Anhalt, raising questions that extend well beyond one regional election. 

Is this the latest chapter in a political shift that has been building across Europe for more than a decade? Or could it mark a deeper break with the post-war order that shaped modern Germany, the European Union and NATO?

Hamish Macdonald and Waleed Aly examine the rise of the AfD, why eastern Germany has become its strongest base, and what reunification left unresolved.

They trace the broader populist wave from the global financial crisis to Orbán, Brexit, Meloni, Le Pen and Trump, and ask whether Germany's political "firewall" against the far right is beginning to crack.

Plus: Waleed reflects on the arguments behind his new Quarterly Essay, What Future for Liberalism? and why he believes the challenge facing liberal democracy runs deeper than any single election result.

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