German Far-Right Party Wins Big as Neo-Nazi Ties and Holocaust Remarks Draw Concern
Germany's AfD has won a landslide election, raising alarm over its neo-Nazi links and leaders' downplaying of the Holocaust.
A far-right party in Germany has registered a landslide victory in an election, a result that has intensified concern about the country's political direction eight decades after the Holocaust.
The Alternative for Germany, known as the AfD, has long unsettled many Germans because of the parallels drawn between its politics and the Nazi era under Adolf Hitler. The party's ranks include individuals with neo-Nazi backgrounds, and its leaders have downplayed the Holocaust.
That combination — an electoral surge by a party with such associations — has made the result a focal point of anxiety both inside Germany and abroad. For a country whose modern identity is built on confronting the crimes of the Nazi period, the rise of a party with these links carries particular weight.
The scale of the win, described as a landslide, marks a significant moment in German politics. It comes as the memory of the Holocaust remains central to Germany's public life, and as the far right has been gaining ground across Europe.
The result has prompted renewed scrutiny of the AfD's record and of what its growing electoral strength means for a nation still defined in part by its effort to reckon with its past.