Brussels Edition

Germany’s Far Right Triples Support in Local Elections

A voter casts a ballot at a polling station during the local elections in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on Sept. 14, 2025.
Photographer: Friso Gentsch/picture alliance/Getty Images

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By Suzanne Lynch

September 15, 2025 at 1:04 PM UTC

Welcome to the Brussels Edition. I’m Suzanne Lynch, Bloomberg’s Brussels bureau chief, bringing you the latest from the EU each weekday. Make sure you're signed up.

Bad, but it could have been worse. That’s the view in Brussels on the election results in the German industrial state of North Rhine-Westphalia yesterday, which saw the far-right Alternative for Germany triple its support. The AfD increased its share of the vote by 9.4 percentage points to 14.5%, according to official preliminary results.