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The latest poll for Saxony-Anhalt has the far-right at 41%. If some of the smaller parties (SPD, Greens, BSW) don't clear the threshold to enter parliament, the far-right may gain an absolute majority in September.

Even if the AfD doesn't win power outright, their success makes parts of eastern Germany extremely difficult to govern. Mainstream parties don't want to work with them (for understandable reasons), so they need to pull everyone else together to form governments without them

But this is ultimately a trap as well because it forces voters into a choice between the AfD and a big blob of all other parties. It's perfect for the far-right because almost everyone who votes for the blob will likely be disappointed even if it wins. At best, the blob can buy time

The AfD is now so strong that it presents all other parties with a choice between the plague and cholera: Either cooperate, thereby granting more legitimacy to them. Or: Blob together, erasing all visible differences between the parties in the minds of ordinary voters

Take migration, for example. Your average older CDU voter probably wants the state to deport more illegal immigrants. Your average younger Linke voter wants the opposite. Or take climate change, or take taxation or take basically any other issue: These blob coalitions cannot work

Conservatives will be disappointed, Greens will be disappointed, Social Democrats will be disappointed, Leftists will be disappointed. The only upside to these coalitions is preventing the AfD from taking power in the now. You're buying time, that's it

It's miserable