Fyodor Lukyanov: Germany’s political ‘elephant in the room’ has gotten bigger, so what now?

How the successes of the far right and far left will affect politics in the EU’s most powerful state

The elephant in the room has gotten bigger. There’s yet more anxiety in Germany after the non-systemic parties (often dismissed as “populists”) scored significant electoral successes in two eastern states over the weekend. ‘Alternative for Germany’ (AFD) won the contest in Thuringia and finished just behind the establishment CDU in Saxony.