The UK, though struggling, is emerging from eight years of conservative chaos. In France, voters have once again united to end the ever-present threat of Marine Le Pen. In the US, Democrats have taken heart after the launch of Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate. But Germany is unfortunately avoiding this cautious resurgence of sensible politics.
Voters in two eastern German regions are expected to overwhelmingly support two far-right parties on Sunday. The national ruling center-left coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP) is struggling to pass the 5 percent threshold designed to exclude extremists from regional parliaments. Meanwhile, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Angela Merkel’s former party, is struggling to compete with the populists.