CBS wonders if two million Germans just voted to put ‘neo-Nazis’ in power

BS BULLETIN:

Germany’s AfD won a landslide 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt, taking 39 of 83 seats and more than doubling the CDU’s 17.2%.
CBS framed the result around whether the nearly two million voters in the state were putting the far right on a path to power, repeatedly invoking Germany’s Nazi past.
But AfD did not win an outright majority and has not automatically taken power. Its candidate Ulrich Siegmund remains three seats short, while other parties are trying to maintain their anti-AfD “firewall.”

Alternative for Germany just delivered an electoral earthquake in Saxony-Anhalt.

And some of the coverage quickly arrived at the question hanging over virtually every discussion of Germany’s surging right: Nazis.

AfD captured 43.8% of Sunday’s vote, its strongest result ever in a German state election. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right CDU finished a distant second with 17.2%. AfD will hold 39 of the state parliament’s 83 seats.

CBS News described AfD as “far-right” and emphasized Germany’s postwar efforts to prevent extremist political movements from gaining power.

There are legitimate reasons for the scrutiny.

Saxony-Anhalt’s state intelligence agency has classified the local AfD branch as a right-wing extremist organization. AfD rejects the characterization. Nationally, meanwhile, a German court in February ordered the federal intelligence service to stop publicly describing the entire AfD as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organization while litigation over that designation continues.

Siegmund himself also has a controversial record. He attended a 2023 meeting where an Identitarian Movement figure presented a “remigration” proposal involving deportations. Siegmund has disputed wrongdoing and said his attendance did not mean he endorsed everything discussed there.

But there’s an important distinction between scrutinizing AfD’s record and treating an enormous chunk of the electorate as if its motivation has already been diagnosed.

AfD nearly doubled the CDU and more than doubled its own 2021 result. Its supporters have cited immigration, economic dissatisfaction, opposition to establishment parties and anger at Merz’s government among their concerns.

And despite the landslide, AfD hasn’t actually taken control of Saxony-Anhalt.

It needed 42 seats for an outright majority and won 39. Germany’s mainstream parties continue to refuse cooperation with AfD under the political “firewall,” leaving an extraordinarily complicated battle over who will ultimately govern the state.

That may be the bigger story than the label:

Germany’s political establishment built a firewall to keep AfD away from power.

The voters just made that firewall considerably harder to maintain.