3 weeks ago
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This Sunday, millions of Germans will head to the polls to vote in the country’s federal elections – historic not only because they will determine who will be the next chancellor, but because they come at a time when the far right in Germany is polling better than in any other period since the second world war.
Regardless of the result, it is a remarkable development for a country so haunted by its Nazi past.
Today in Focus presenter Helen Pidd takes a road trip through Germany to find out why, and finds a country increasingly unsure of itself: a voter in Magdeburg, the scene of a horrific attack on a Christmas market in December, now afraid of going to public events; a newly unemployed baker in Wolfsburg toying with the idea of voting for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD); and across the country, people fearful of what the rise of the AfD means for minorities.
The AfD is unlikely to enter office after the elections – all the polls indicate that the next chancellor will be Friedrich Merz, of the conservative Christian Democrat Union. But will he resist the temptation of flirting with the country’s growing far-right politics? And what will it mean for the most powerful country in Europe if he doesn’t?
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