It does not happen often that I set my alarm to just before 4am to watch the results from a provincial election in Germany. But that is what I did yesterday for Saxony-Anhalt, in Germany’s east.

This election was special in more than one way. It was a test of the popularity of the federal government in Berlin and, as such, a plebiscite on Chancellor Friedrich Merz. But it was also the first time a far-right party, the AfD, had a realistic chance of winning an outright majority.

To read the article on the Newsroom website, click here.