German Far Right Targets Berlin After Record Win

"From previous elections, we know that the AfD is currently able to mobilize almost totally its own constituency and potential voters, while its democratic competitors have much more problems," said Gideon Botsch, head of the Emil Julius Gumbel Research Unit on Antisemitism and Right-Wing Extremism at Potsdam University, who told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency the AfD has regularly topped nationwide polls for the past year.

Roland Abold, managing director of the election research institute Infratest Dimap, called the Saxony-Anhalt result a "watershed moment" that heaps pressure on Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and said "calls for a change in political direction and a reassessment of cooperation with the AfD are likely to intensify."

Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD candidate who hopes to become Saxony-Anhalt's state premier, tied his fortunes to Weidel's: "As perhaps the next Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt, I need a Federal Chancellor Alice Weidel here in Berlin, so that we can write here history side by side."

Daniel Schuster, who heads the Simon Wiesenthal Center's European office, said the coming votes will show "whether Saxony-Anhalt was an exceptionally strong eastern result or part of a broader national expansion of the AfD's electoral base."

Remko Leemhuis of the American Jewish Committee Berlin said a "very strong AfD result" short of entering government would still "raise serious concerns" for Jewish residents about the party's influence.

Kuttner, who calls the AfD neo-Nazi, is blunter about the cause: "Call me an economic determinist, but for the most part it's the economy, stupid."