Germany’s Leaders Get Yet Another Wake-Up Call

Germany’s centrist leaders must heed the message that voters keep sending them: If they want to avert a descent into extremism, they need to offer a much bolder vision for the country.

The latest wake-up call came from elections in the eastern states of Saxony and Thuringia, the latter of which the far-right Alternative for Germany won outright — a troubling post-war first for a party whose local leader has used banned Nazi slogans in speeches. More telling, though, was the sudden success of the far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, launched only in January to ride the same wave of popular discontent that has fueled the AfD’s rise. The result suggests that voters are simply fed up with the status quo, not longing for the fascist past.