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In this analysis
Germany's mainstream parties have spent years debating whether the 'firewall' against the AfD can hold. Saxony-Anhalt suggests that this is now the wrong first question. The more urgent issue is whether the parties behind the firewall can persuade enough voters to stand on their side of it.
What happened
Reuters reported that the AfD won nearly 44% in Saxony-Anhalt and became the largest party, while Chancellor Friedrich Merz rejected cooperation. Immigration, economic frustration and attitudes toward Russia and Ukraine were central to the campaign.
The argument
A cordon sanitaire is a coalition rule, not a governing programme. It can prevent an extremist party from entering office, but it cannot by itself reduce that party's vote. If mainstream parties want the firewall to survive, they need credible answers on migration, public services, wages, energy and eastern German alienation.
The strongest counterargument
Normalising the AfD could legitimise positions that Germany's post-war political system was designed to keep outside government. Institutional caution is not cowardice when democratic norms themselves may be at stake.
What happens next
The next signal will be whether CDU politicians defect from the firewall in practice, and whether the federal government changes policy rather than simply sharpening rhetoric.
Editorial note
This article separates sourced reporting from analysis. The factual record is linked below; judgments and conclusions are State & Power's editorial analysis.