East Germany

German election 2025: The winners and losers

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The CDU is celebrating (somewhat), the SPD is reeling, and the AfD is making history.

German election: Will the far-right AfD break through the firewall and take power?

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With international politics in flux, three leading historians give their views on the most consequential election in a generation for Europe’s most powerful country. 

Germany’s Left comes back from the dead

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Once written off as a party in terminal decline, Die Linke is defying expectations with a youth-driven resurgence.

Merz’s coalition dream hinges on implosion of smaller rivals

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To achieve the success he craves, Germany’s likely next chancellor needs liberals and left-wingers to crash and burn.

How Germany found itself holding an Italian election

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POLITICO has processed 35 years’ worth of election data to find out why this month’s vote is messier than ever ― and what will happen next.

World’s top defense conference bans Germany’s populist left and right parties

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Munich Security Conference gets tough on anti-establishment parties ahead of German election.

Alice Weidel is the presentable face of the AfD. And the one its opponents should fear the most | Katja Hoyer

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By avoiding the standard cliches, the far-right leader comes across as moderate even as she backs extremist rhetoric“Alice? Who the fuck is Alice?” wondered European audiences in 1995 when the Dutch band Gompie landed an unlikely success by adding this…

East Germany’s exodus of women fuels growing political radicalisation

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Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of industry in the former East Germany, many women have left the region and never returned. Men are now over-represented, with a surplus of up to 25 percent in some municipalities. This shortage of wo…

35 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, East Germany moped making a come-back

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Back in the days of East Germany, many people got around on mopeds made by a manufacturer called Simson. After the fall of the Berlin Wall 35 years ago, Simsons went out of fashion. But, for the past few years, they’ve been making a come-back, and hav…

As a former East German athlete doped by the state, I see how our past pain is fuelling the far right | Ines Geipel

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In east Germany, our history is shrouded in lies and silence. Until we break their hold, support for extremism will flourishIt was the autumn of 1989. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germans were fighting for their first chance to live in a demo…

The hidden Nazi heritage of Germany’s far-right leader

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Alice Weidel’s grandfather was a military judge in Hitler’s regime.

Austrian election offers far right a springboard back to power

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A win for the Freedom Party Sunday would expand Central Europe’s Putin-friendly bloc.

I was relieved to see the AfD beaten in my home state. Now we must confront why it is so popular | Eva von Redecker

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East Germany’s social fabric is torn after decades of neglect. Without repairing it, we can never hope to truly fend off fascismSunday was election day in my state of Brandenburg. The morning was sunny, unseasonably warm, yet already in autumnal gold. …

Radical left and radical right have become indistinguishable

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For as long as the center fails to make its case in a way that galvanizes, there will be many more like Sahra Wagenknecht.

Putin ‘wins’ in eastern Germany

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A post-election debate over U.S. missiles and military aid for Ukraine is hampering coalition building in Germany’s east.

Far-right election success pushes Germany towards political instability

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The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) secured one-third of the vote in East Germany’s elections on Sunday, prompting parties across the political spectrum to rule out coalitions with the extremist group. However, enforcing a domestic cordon sanit…

5 takeaways from Germany’s eastern elections

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The far-right Alternative of Germany just keeps rising despite efforts to stop it.

Far-left politician calling for peace with Russia makes waves in Germany

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A radical far-left politician who wants to make peace with Russia’s Vladimir Putin looks set to play a key role in regional elections in the former East Germany on Sunday. Sahra Wagenknecht, 55, born in communist East Germany to an Iranian father and …

How to watch the eastern German elections like a pro

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The far right and far left are expected to surge in Sunday’s state elections.

Far-left rebel seeking peace with Putin rocks German politics

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A radical far-left politician who wants to make peace with Russia’s Vladimir Putin looks set to play a key role in regional elections in the former East Germany on Sunday (1 September).

Putin’s next coup

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Elections in three eastern German states are likely to usher in Russia-friendly parties, giving Vladimir Putin a foothold in the country’s politics.

Decades after Germany’s reunification, views still differ on its cultural divide | Letter

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Ruth Strassl, born in West Germany, and John Green, who spent several years living in East Germany, respond to an article by Carolin WürfelCarolin Würfel expresses her disappointment about West Germans’ ignorance concerning East German writers (East Ge…

Will parties in east Germany act to stave off far-right AfD from power?

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In Thuringia, which has a population of 2.1 million and where the famous Buchenwald concentration camp memorial is located, the fiercely anti-immigration AfD is leading with 30% in the polls for the upcoming 1 September state elections.

As the far right gains ground, Germany deserves better from its mainstream politicians | John Kampfner

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It’s not just the AfD that poses a major threat in this weekend’s regional elections – while traditional moderate parties are failing to inspire votersBritain is emerging, albeit grumpily, from eight years of Conservative mayhem. In France, voters club…

Is Germany’s rising superstar so far left she’s far right?

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Sahra Wagenknecht’s brand of “left conservatism” is upending German politics ahead of critical elections in the east.

Prisoner swaps between Russia and west started in 1962 during cold war

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Two groups of people gathered on a bridge separating West Berlin and East Germany for exchange of Russian spy and American pilotThe top-secret negotiations, the hushed rumours and the planes converging on Ankara, a third-country location that was kept …

Germany’s Scholz under friendly fire over US missile plan

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“Not every weapon makes Germany immediately safer,” says Rolf Mützenich, the leader of the SPD faction in the Bundestag.

German parties reach deal to safeguard judiciary amid rise of far right

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Poland and Hungary serve as cautionary tales, German justice minister says.

Clashes erupt as far-right AfD states aim to govern Germany

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The far-right AfD declared its ambition to rise to power in Germany as its party congress kicked off Saturday (29 June) with clashes between hooded demonstrators and police, just weeks after it scored record EU election results.

Germany’s Scholz worried about shifting public opinion on Ukraine support

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The rise of populists in the former East Germany in the European elections is linked to growing opposition to support for Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz admitted on Sunday, insisting there was no alternative to maintaining aid.

Germany’s Russia-friendly parties skip Zelenskyy speech

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The Ukrainian leader gave a rousing speech in the Bundestag. But lawmakers for the far-right Alternative for Germany and Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht boycotted.

EU elections: earthquake in France and a rightward policy lurch? Our panel responds | Mariam Lau and others

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Emmanuel Macron calls a snap election and the hard right wins big in Germany – but that’s far from the whole pictureIn Germany, the further rise of the far right was expected – every poll had predicted as much. What was not expected, however, was that …

German steel plants needed for democracy, economy minister says

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German Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has defended the country’s billion-euro investments into green steel plants, saying it was needed to avoid a breakdown of whole regions’ industries and secure supply of steel at times of geopolitical uncer…

German far right’s eastern stronghold has clear view on spy allegation: ‘It’s a witch hunt’

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Alternative for Germany’s core supporters are sticking with the party despite allegations of dodgy links to Russia and China.

Quiz: Do you know when each country joined NATO?

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31 nations have joined before. But when?

What’s ‘wrong’ with east Germany? Look to its long neglect by the wealthy west | Katja Hoyer

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The far-right AfD is leading the polls in former GDR regions – and longstanding bias in German media and politics is partly to blameThe Berlin Wall “will be standing in 50 and even in 100 years”, Erich Honecker, the leader of socialist East Germany, pr…

Germany’s Ukraine policy is incoherent for a reason

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The German chancellor is driven by a deep-seated fear of Russia and a desire to be seen as a “peace chancellor.”

Germany looks to prevent far-right takeover of the judiciary

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As the AfD maintains strong support in polls, German leaders see Poland and Hungary as cautionary tales.

Germany’s rude political awakening

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The country’s domestic politics are becoming dysfunctional just when Berlin’s leadership on the world stage may be needed most.

German court bans funding for extreme-right party, fueling debate on AfD

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Coming at a time of mass protests against the far-right Alternative for Germany, the ruling is stoking debate about using legal means to stop the party’s rise.

‘Puzzle Women’: Piecing together the files destroyed by East Germany’s secret police

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Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a team of archivists has been tirelessly sorting, pasting and reassembling documents that were destroyed by the Stasi, the East German secret police. Nicknamed the “Puzzle Women”, these heroines of collective…

Can a ban stop the rise of Germany’s far right?

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A fiery debate over whether to ban the ever-more radical Alternative for Germany is colored by the country’s Nazi past.

Germany’s far-right predicament — to ban or not

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The nation must be vigilant about the Alternative for Germany party — as well as those who would undermine democracy in the name of saving it.

German hard-left icon set to start a new populist party

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The new party would further scramble Germany’s fracturing political landscape — and likely peel away support from the far right.

Far-right surge upends German state elections

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Elections in Bavaria and Hesse underscored frustration with the federal ruling coalition, as Alternative for Germany made big gains.

How to watch Germany’s state elections like a pro

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POLITICO’s handy guide to keeping you on top of all the action in key elections in Bavaria and Hesse.

How the far right turned heat pumps into electoral rocket fuel

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Alternative for Germany has woven climate change policy alongside migration and Euroskepticism into its grand narrative of decay, elitism and rage.

Germany’s far-right ‘firewall’ cracks

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A vow by mainstream parties not to cooperate with Alternative for Germany is under pressure as the party surges in the polls.

Germany bewildered about how to halt the rise of the AfD

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The far right’s rise is sending shock waves through the country’s political landscape.

Germany’s reunification, 33 years on: East-West divide persists

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33 years after German reunification, wealth disparities still form the “most significant differences” between the former West and the East, German government Commissioner Carsten Schneider said, but differences within the government make it impossible …

Poland’s ruling party hopes call for German war reparations can swing election

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PiS has been generating as much electoral heat as it can over its demand that Berlin pay up for World War II.

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