State elections in Germany: how to handle the AfD?
The AfD's strong performance in the Saxony and Thuringia state elections poses an enormous challenge for the other parties. In view of the disastrous results of Germany's ruling coalition government, European media turn their attention to the centre-right CDU, which must now decide how to position itself vis-à-vis the victorious far-right party.
Policies must be the deciding factor
The times when there was a broad centre between the political extremes are also over in Germany, Svenska Dagbladet observes:
“The CDU now finds itself facing the same dilemma as the centre-right parties in many other European countries. It has closed itself off to any form of cooperation with the AfD, but the alternative is to govern with the help of left-wing parties that are often even more distant in terms of content. ... Germany has its historical experience and its own special reasons to defend itself against radical nationalists. But in the long run the CDU, like other centre-right parties in Europe, will have to give up being guided by any considerations other than which parliamentary partnerships can produce the best policies. Or the least bad ones.”
Don't let them co-govern
Including the AfD in a state government would be a dangerous mistake, warns Kurier:
“A ban on extremist parties? As long as they abide by the constitution, this is just as impossible as banning the feelings or fears of their voters. But allowing them to co-govern would be a fatal mistake: their absurd, extreme, xenophobic demands would become part of the programme. And the government in the small state of Thuringia should not start with this either - and thus begin yet another chapter in Germany's dark history.”
Federal elections will be the acid test
El País hopes that the CDU will adopt the right stance:
“The results in Thuringia and Saxony once again put the cordon sanitaire around the AfD to the test, particularly regarding the moderate right. Even if ultra-extremism remains locked out of any German state government, the results of these elections are a serious warning for the central government coalition of the Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals, which is losing ground in both states. This puts the CDU in the best starting position for the federal elections in a year's time, which will constitute an unprecedented test - in both Germany and Europe - for assessing the rise of the far right and the other parties' commitment to preventing it from coming to power.”