Yes, the AfD victory signals a danger to democracy, but not the way they tell you

Yes, the AfD victory signals a danger to democracy, but not the way they tell you

The risk now is not one opposition surge, but how Berlin may answer it: with smears, lawfare and deeper contempt for voters
Say what you will about ex-BlackRock bigwig German Chancellor and uber-grinch Friedrich Merz, but he has his moments of unexpected alertness.
Currently, he is ! He has noticed that his party, the mainstream conservatives of the CDU are after suffering their .
Germany’s was, of course, talking about the results of the regional elections in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. They have produced a landslide victory for the new-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, under its shooting star Ulrich ‘Uli’ Siegmund. 
They delivered a colossal, devastating fiasco to the CDU and, of course, Merz personally: The AfD 43.8 percent of the vote, the CDU 17.2 percent. When compared with the last state election, the AfD gained 23 percent, while the CDU lost 19.9 percent.
Polls show that the AfD has massively siphoned off former CDU voters and also mobilized previous non-voters with unprecedented success. In terms of , the AfD is dominating almost the entire spectrum except among the very old.
The CDU, which had been in charge in Saxony-Anhalt’s capital of Magdeburg for over two decades, has suffered no ordinary defeat but a catastrophic wipe-out shaking the party, to quote Merz again, The former default ruling party of first West and then post-1990 Germany is in tatters. It is a sign of even worse things to come. In Saxony-Anhalt it has no future, quite literally: among the youngest voters the CDU achieved a pitiful 5 percent, far below its already horrific overall result.
The man who has pro-actively led the party of Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel into this total debacle may still be in office for now. True to form, of accepting responsibility, that is, resigning. But were circulating even before the disaster. Calls for ending his ruinous tenure have only become louder now. And if not now, then soon: Having suffered – and produced – one catastrophic defeat, Merz that are likely to go badly for the CDU as well.
It is true that Saxony-Anhalt is small. One of Germany’s 16 federal states, it has a population of 2.1 million, of whom about 1.7 million can vote. That is less than the electorate of, for instance, the city of Hamburg. Yet no one in Germany even tries to pretend that what has happened in Saxony-Anhalt will stay in Saxony-Anhalt. On the contrary, everyone – across the entire mediascape and political spectrum – takes it as self-evident that these elections are bound to have massive national effects. Likewise, it did not even take US President Donald Trump’s to rub in that the Magdeburg quake is reverberating internationally, too.
If Merz falls – and perhaps even if he sticks to his seat for a long time before doing so – the radical-Centrist coalition currently in charge in Berlin will be under enormous pressure. Witness the fact that its frontman from the Social-Democrats (SPD), Finance Minister and austerity-imposer-in-chief Lars Klingbeil is already making terrified noises some Berlin’s mean cuts to pensions, healthcare, and social security. How a little pain can concentrate the mind.
One thing seems to finally have sunk in with Germany’s slow, lazy, and complacent establishment: Neither the so-called ‘firewall’ – that is, – has failed and offers no hope for the future. Clinging to that moronic, deeply undemocratic and simply indecently unfair strategy will only make the AfD stronger. Exactly as it has up until now.
Read more Yet make no mistake: Germany’s radical Centrists are obstinate. Even with the ‘firewall’ demolished, they might still try to cling to its ruins for a while. That, however, will not make a difference in the end. What could have more substantial and very disruptive consequences is something else. What if they radicalize their strategy against the AfD, i