Germany’s far right is here, and as Sunday’s results show, it’s here to stay.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) scored a stunning victory on Sunday in the elections held in the eastern German states, after coming first in Thuringia and a strong second place in Saxony.

“Our country cannot and should not get used to it,” said Olof Solz to Reuters after the results. “The AfD is harming Germany. It weakens the economy, divides society and destroys the reputation of our country,” he stressed.

However, a year after the national elections, the country is already leaning to the right. Politco analyzes five takeaways from the election result, as Germany’s far-right achieved its biggest electoral success since World War II.

1. The AfD continues to rise despite efforts to stop it

Germany’s mainstream leaders have made concerted efforts to halt the AfD’s rise by warning voters of the party’s growing extremism, with some leaders even calling it a Nazi party.

Domestic state-level intelligence authorities have classified the party’s local branches in both Saxony and Thuringia as extremist organizations aimed at undermining German democracy. Earlier this year, Saskia Esken, the head of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), favored talk of banning the AfD — if only, as she put it, to “shake voters” out of their complacency.

The AfD leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, one of the party’s most extreme figures, has twice been found guilty by a German court of deliberately using Nazi rhetoric. But despite persistent warnings from centrist leaders, institutions and courts, tthe AfD continued its riseespecially in East Germany.

The fact that the citizens are constantly losing their credibility towards the centrist parties and the country’s institutions seems to be the main problem, according to the publication.

2. New party BSW emerges to become a major political force

In some ways, the biggest winner of the night was the populist-left Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), led by a former member of the East German Communist Party. TBSW finished third in both states, a remarkable result for a party formed only a few months ago.

The party has repeatedly called for an end to German military aid to Ukraine and negotiations with Putin – a view for which there is much sympathy in Germany’s former communist east.

“We want the war in Ukraine to end and we don’t see that happening with more and more arms deliveries,” party founder Sahra Wagenknecht told public broadcaster ARD.

Due to the increasingly fragmented political landscape across the East, the role of BSW in the formation of governments at the state level, proves to be particularly important, especially when all parties have vowed not to cooperate with the AfD

In both Saxony and Thuringia, the BSW is sure to play an important role in the next governments.

3. Voters punished ruling coalition in Berlin (again)

Germany’s three ruling coalition parties — Scholz’s SPD, the Greens and the fiscally conservative Free Democratic Party (FDP) — suffered significant losses in Sunday’s polls. All three coalition parties in Thuringia together barely won more than 10% of the total vote.

While the SPD lost less ground in the election, it was arguably a very poor result for a party that posted its worst national election performance in more than a century in June’s European elections.

In an attempt to reverse its political fortunes just before the election, Solz’s government announced a series of tougher immigration measures – showing how the AfD’s rise to an anti-immigration message has shaken the country’s political establishment. But even so, this decision did not seem to help the party’s fortunes.

“There is a large proportion of people who have no confidence in the ability of established politics to find solutions and therefore deliberately chose a negative model,” said SPD general secretary Kevin Kühnert on Monday.

The SPD has the chance to recant on September 22, in the Brandenburg elections. In the opinion polls the SPD gathers 20%, however it still comes second after the AfD comes first again with 24%.

4. The AfD has become a “people’s party” in East Germany

Far-right parties across Europe often benefit from voters showing their displeasure with mainstream parties at the polls, effectively punishing them. But in East Germany, it seems that voters are increasingly embracing the AfD not as a way of protesting the mainstream, but out of serious political conviction.

Every second AfD voter in Thuringia and Saxony voted for the party because they believe in its message. This is a change from previous elections.

In addition, voters in both states, according to surveys, said the AfD can represent the interests of people in eastern Germany and pursue better policies on asylum and immigrants. And on other issues, including social protection and the fight against crime, the party ranked among the top two parties in terms of voter trust.

5. Building coalition governments can be an extended drama

It is not the first time that politicians are expected to be tested in the formation of coalitions in eastern Germany. After the previous state elections in Thuringia in 2019, a major political crisis erupted when Thomas Kemmerich, an FDP politician, was elected prime minister with the support of the AfD.

The partnership with the AfD led to a massive nationwide outcry, forcing Kemmerich to back down. He was replaced by Bodo Ramelow of the Left party, who presided over a minority government.

This episode underlined the difficulty of forming coalition governments without the AfD in an increasingly fractured political landscape across the East.

Despite the AfD’s strong showings in both Saxony and Thuringia last Sunday, the party is unlikely to take power because all other parties say they will not form coalitions with him. In Thuringia, therefore, the only realistic majority government to be formed is an alliance between the CDU, the BSW and the party of the Left. The CDU, however, in a party resolution officially ruled out any cooperation with the Left party.

Given the complex dynamics, well, it can to take months to form new coalitions. The AfD, meanwhile, is sure to make things as difficult as possible – portraying its exclusion from coalitions as a disenfranchisement of its voters.