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The latest poll for Saxony-Anhalt has the far-right at 41%. If some of the smaller parties (SPD, Greens, BSW) don't clear the threshold to enter parliament, the far-right may gain an absolute majority in September.

Even if the AfD doesn't win power outright, their success makes parts of eastern Germany extremely difficult to govern. Mainstream parties don't want to work with them (for understandable reasons), so they need to pull everyone else together to form governments without them

But this is ultimately a trap as well because it forces voters into a choice between the AfD and a big blob of all other parties. It's perfect for the far-right because almost everyone who votes for the blob will likely be disappointed even if it wins. At best, the blob can buy time

The AfD is now so strong that it presents all other parties with a choice between the plague and cholera: Either cooperate, thereby granting more legitimacy to them. Or: Blob together, erasing all visible differences between the parties in the minds of ordinary voters

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If the other parties choose to blob together (which they will), they will paralyse each other for a few years and then we'll likely be back where we are now, just that the AfD will probably be even stronger. These coalitions are too broad to deliver what voters want, they're doomed to fail

There are successfully big tent governments out there 🇨🇭 And I think we should try much more direct democracy as well, especially in states where traditional mainstream parties don't have a lot of public support

Take migration, for example. Your average older CDU voter probably wants the state to deport more illegal immigrants. Your average younger Linke voter wants the opposite. Or take climate change, or take taxation or take basically any other issue: These blob coalitions cannot work

The Kenya coalitions seem to exemplify this: GroKo's and Black-Green are functional, but Black-Green-Red doesn't have have a coherent set of overlapping priorities to function as a really representative government for a majority. R2G works as a broad center left govt until you get to foreign policy

Conservatives will be disappointed, Greens will be disappointed, Social Democrats will be disappointed, Leftists will be disappointed. The only upside to these coalitions is preventing the AfD from taking power in the now. You're buying time, that's it

Migration is a major political issue. More and more people are sceptical of big scale Muslim immigration. According to opinion poll 2/3 of Germans want stricter migration policies. Many of these vote AfD, many vote CDU. If CDU has to work with Linke in a blob this could soon falter on migration.