Tom Nuttall

From the AfD leaks: new details on the scale of Alice Weidel's fear, a decade ago, of Björn Höcke's growing influence in the party. As our recent interview made clear, Weidel has since made peace with Höcke & pals, cementing the influence of the AfD's völkisch wing. www.politico.eu/article/leak...

The consistent downward gradient of the black line over the last three months really is something to behold.

Merz: "It was encouraging to see how big the support was [at the EU summit] for this proposal [anti-China kill switch] pushing back against trade practices coming from certain parts of the world. No one expressed any reservations. #DLT26 #Voldemort

The head of the CDU's youth wing, Johannes Winkel, is delivering a quietly devastating speech to the "Mutterpartei": - "we use the term 'reform' for measures that aren't reforms at all -"CDU is conducting politics as if it was 2010" -"no constitutional guarantee of perpetuity for mainstream parties"

Our hour-long Insider interview with Alice Weidel is now live for subscribers. www.economist.com/insider/the-...

told ya

This afternoon we sat down with Alice Weidel, co-leader of the populist-right AfD and an aspirant German chancellor, for more than an hour in the Bundestag. The video interview will be published tomorrow at 7pm CET for subscribers - I would recommend tuning in.

"The vague title and axis label are compatible with someone prompting an LLM "generate a graph that shows that Russian troll activity has decreased recently"

this livestreamed execution is one of the most not going to happen things that has ever not happened.

Another crazy-ass day in a German Landtag election, another day where I am utterly baffled that such votes are conducted via a secret ballot

"The European hope is that China’s leadership will refrain from further retaliation to avoid emboldening Europe’s hawks just as Germany has joined their flock." Our take on today's extraordinary Franco-German letter, with @codendahl.bsky.social www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Compare & contrast: in March a state branch of Germany's Die Linke approved a resolution condemning "Zionism as it actually exists today," earning the party a whopping shitstorm. The leadership condemned it. Today the full conference of Britain's Green party backed a "Zionism is racism" motion.

Nice to have some #impact (from this morning's German Politico Playbook; auto-translated)

Hallo @bmi.bund.de

RIP the Mighty Sparrow. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWed...

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that some elements of the German discourse around Die Linke in Berlin are...completely demented?

The CDU/CSU has shed one quarter of its voters in six months.

Here's where we are tonight. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Stop trying to make "Berlin's Mamdani" happen I beg you

Merz: "Our reforms are the means to combat the poison that is penetrating deeper and deeper into our society through the allure of authoritarianism". Says he's going nowhere - neither as CDU leader or federal chancellor.

Early days, but looks like we may be heading for red-red-green governments in both M-V and Berlin - albeit with different parties on top. That's going to be difficult for the CDU to swallow. Merz due to speak shortly.

Angela Merkel's consistent, decades-long ability to drive men absolutely insane remains unmmatched.

Wenn Deutschland heute die erste F-35 bekommt, nutzen 13 europäische Staaten das amerikanische Flugzeug. Die Ironie: Europäische Vereinheitlichung und Interoperabilität sind offenbar machbar, allerdings in diesem Fall ohne Europäische Souveränität über die Technologie.

Fantastic column. www.economist.com/business/202...

Operation "Die Frau gegen Blau (with a little help from Schwarz)" seems to be on track.

Trump becomes the first orange man to support a united Ireland

Friedrich Merz's extraordinary Bundestag appearance on Wednesday only served to highlight the extent to which German politics now revolves around the AfD. My latest. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Heroic instances of "Why the election in Saxony-Anhalt proves all my political prioris were correct" from every part of the political spectrum this morning, hats off all round.

Amusing clash of political cultures as Channel 4 journalists bellow Britishisms to a bemused-looking Sven Schulze quietly making his way through the CDU election party - "ARE YOU GOING TO RESIGN MR SCHULZE!" "A WORD FOR BRITISH TV MR SCHULZE!"

More generally, I think the pattern emerges where you have a dominant non-central party (Scandinavian social democrats, BE/LUX Christian Democrats, post-war FF in Ireland, Icelandic Independence Party) and a fragmented-but-contiguous opposition.

Police taking no chances in Magdeburg. Vans everywhere.

At 2pm turnout in Saxony-Anhalt (excluding postal votes) had already beaten the overall figure in several previous state elections.

Political scientists: is there any European precedent for a party winning an election held under PR with over 40% of the vote—and still finding itself subsequently excluded from government?

The (presumably) final projection from zweitstimme.org gives the AfD a 22% chance of securing a majority tomorrow. The figure has trended downwards as the SPD and Green numbers have ticked up - perhaps evidence of tactical voting.

Sunday's election could see Saxony-Anhalt become the first state to be run by a far-right party since 1945. Buit how would the AfD govern? I spent the last few weeks travelling across the state, speaking to locals, politicians and experts. Here's what I found out. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Sunday's election could see Saxony-Anhalt become the first state to be run by a far-right party since 1945. Buit how would the AfD govern? I spent the last few weeks travelling across the state, speaking to locals, politicians and experts. Here's what I found out. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Is he doing a Mötley Crüe, or is someone at Politico making a funny?

Updated Sachsen-Anhalt predictions from zweitstimme.org - SPD almost certain to make it into parliament, BSW almost certain not to; AfD's chances of a majority slightly falling.

Can't use taxi driver vignettes in copy so I'll save it for here: cabbie driving me to a CDU event in Dessau tonight proudly showed off some Bauhaus architecture en route to the venue, and when I told him the AfD had Bauhaus in their sights, he was so shocked that I think I may have swayed a vote.

Worthwhile Canadian initiative! www.politico.eu/article/cana...

Think I've nailed it: Twitter/X is where ppl lose their shit over Annalena Baerbock's career trajectory; Bluesky is where they are still for some reason extremely angry about lanyards .