Europe today faces East. In an area of Germany which rarely occupied the international headlines. Not anymore. The reason for the state of Thuringia with two million inhabitants, where elections are currently being held, as well as in neighboring Saxony, with four million inhabitants. And if in Saxony the battle appears ambiguous between the Alternative for Germany and the Christian Democrats, in Thuringia the Alternative for Germany has a clear lead, although it will hardly manage to form a government.

We met a few days ago at Erfurtits capital Thuringia. Of the sparsely populated state with heavy history. It was identified with the Weimar Republic, while earlier German idealism and lyrical poetry flourished here in Jena by Hegel, Schiller, Schelling, Goethe. Here also in December 1929 Hitler’s National Socialist Party managed to enter the local parliament for the first time and co-govern with the conservative party of the time. Erfurt was also home to the infamous Stasi prisons during the German Democratic Republic.

Today Thuringia is electing a new local parliament. OR Alternative for Germany, in its most extreme form and monitored by the Agency for the Protection of the Constitution, headed by Björn Hecke who has been convicted by German justice for Nazi salutes and slogans, precedes. The Christian Democrats follow by a margin, and Sarah Wagenknecht’s Alliance comes third, with the slogan “Logic and Justice” and the dilemma “War or Peace?”. Bodo Ramelo’s Left, which has been in power since 2014 and until now has been the only “left exception” in Reunified Germany, is probably living out its last days as a first party.

“Germans are not used to being afraid”

Outside Erfurt’s main station we tried to talk to passers-by. Most did not want to talk on camera. A group of students simply said: “We don’t know any of that” and a tired middle-aged man: “I’m tired of them, I’m not talking.” Only one pensioner stops and gives her own explanation for the rise of the Far Right on the DW microphone: “Germans are not used to being afraid. We are now slowly becoming aware of how fluid the situation is internationally and in Germany. And the AfD has very simple solutions. They say ‘we’ll do it this way’, and ‘we’ll drive them all out’ and ‘Germany for the Germans’. Nonsense!”.

But also a student who was leaving for Hamburg: “Many turn to the extremes because they don’t feel that the politicians represent them.” And he cites a recent example, which shows that the central policy in Germany has no idea about what is happening in the periphery, in the still cut off from the central grids of eastern Germany. “The 49 euro ticket for example. It concerns those who live in cities. Those who live in the countryside don’t feel that they were thought of because there isn’t that much transport.”

AfD looks ‘to the future’

At the same time the party headquarters are in turmoil with the AfD already preparing for the next day. Despite the potential lead, he is aware that forming a coalition government is unrealistic. “The chances of Björn Hecke becoming Prime Minister of Thuringia may be limited, but that is not the case for the future,” said the young representative of the AfD in Thuringia, Torben Braga, recently in a conversation with journalists of the Association of Foreign Correspondents coldly. 1991, graduate of the German School of Rio de Janeiro, lawyer and former member of the Liberal Party. The goal for the AfD is one, as he said, in all contests: victory and implementation of the program.

As for the Wagenknecht Alliance, which many say is winking at the AfD, the head of the Thuringian ballot and former Eisenach mayor with the Left, Katia Wolff, refuses to cooperate with Hecke. “Many things separate us from the Alternative for Germany, which no one talks about: regarding immigration, the right to asylum, equal opportunities in education, gender equality.” Of course, he put an asterisk in the same update: that what they have in common is that they address the people and talk about real solutions to real problems.

A ghost hovers over Thuringia…

On the other hand, Georg Mayer, head of the Social Democrats who are literally “rejoicing” in Thuringia, sees no differences between the Wagenknecht Alliance and Alternative for Germany. “The Wagenknecht Alliance is a mixture of nationalist and socialist proposals,” he says characteristically, but on the other hand he can understand the interest caused by the Wagenknecht political phenomenon.

As for the Left Prime Minister Bodo Ramelo, he now comes fourth after old comrades Katia Wolff and Sarah Wagenknecht. His co-candidate, Katia Wolff, as Ramelo says, is essentially a straw man for Wagenknecht, who wants to have a role and say in state politics even if she is not there. And as Ramelo says with humor: “This is the first time we have experienced something like this in Germany. We have seen governments with three parties, we have seen minority governments, but for the first time we are seeing a pre-election race with ghosts, with persons who are not even candidates.”