The September 1 regional elections German Chancellor Olaf Scholz didn’t want to see coming hit him and his ruling coalition like a ton of bricks anyway.
“Crushed” was a commonly used adjective from Bloomberg to other major news organs routinely covering Europe.
When it comes to Germany, I don’t think it’s “uncharted territory” pic.twitter.com/OONsFMYjse
— nazir afzal (@nazirafzal) September 2, 2024
The gloom about the populist party’s rise is tangible through all the reports. The margin of the gains has to be an especially bitter pill with all the concerted demonization, vitriol, and hyperbole – not to mention flat-out politically based persecution – thrown against the AfD’s party members for the better part of the past year.
Even organized leftist street demonstrations the week preceding the elections deriding “the far-right extremists” seemed to have the opposite…
