German Chancellor Friedrich Merz looks on as Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel delivers a speech during a session of Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany June 11, 2026. (REUTERS)

How the anti-AfD firewall broke German politics

IT IS AS unusual in Germany as anywhere to see conservatives cavort with Marxists. But at a demonstration in Bitterfeld, a town in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, flags bearing the names of almost all Germany’s political parties flutter in the breeze, from the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) to the Greens and Social Democrats (SPD)…

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