I know why many east Germans vote AfD. And no, it’s not an inherited longing for dictatorship | Carolin Würfel

Grievance politics has grown in the east of the country where I was born. But west Germans have hard questions to answer too The fear that a fascist, far-right movement would rise to power again in Germany has been with me since my youth. On 6 September, the far-right, anti-immigrant, pro-Kremlin Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) won a landslide in Saxony-Anhalt, becoming the biggest party in the state parliament, with a shocking 44% of the vote, on a record turnout.

If it finds a way to power it will be the first far-right party to govern a German state since the Nazi era. The night before the vote, I sent a message to a friend, who, like myself, has an East German background. Was she as worried, scared even, about the vote as I was, I asked. I’d fallen into a loop for days, scrolling videos, reels, reports, interviews done on the ground. And I knew these AfD voters. They could have been relatives, friends of my parents, old teachers, former schoolmates.

Why were they saying such incoherent stuff?

Read the original report at The Guardian.