The AfD is changing politics without governing

The AfD doesn't have to govern to change politics. It is enough for the Union and the SPD to lose their nerve out of fear of her.

The AfD's success in Saxony-Anhalt left the two governing parties in a state of shock. Recipes are now being urgently sought to slow down the rise of right-wing populism. On the one hand, this is understandable. Because the next elections are coming up in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. There, too, there is a risk of severe loss of votes. The CDU in particular could collapse dangerously.

But what the Union and the SPD are now doing to regain their footing does not bode well. The coalition partners are shaking up their own, painstakingly negotiated resolutions and believe in all seriousness that a change of course could now help. Reforms that the Union and the SPD have been wrestling with for months are back up for debate.

This is dangerous. Because compromise is at the core of parliamentary democracy. No party can fully implement its party program in a coalition. You argue, negotiate and come to an agreement. Then what was agreed applies.