In Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, Germany's far-right Alternative für Deutschland claimed nearly 44 percent of the vote, its strongest regional result ever, while the parties that have governed Germany for generations were reduced to fractions of their former selves. The result is not merely a local tremor but one data point in a continental pattern: far-right movements now command roughly one in four European votes, a proportion that has grown nearly fivefold since the mid-1990s. Political scientists are wrestling with whether the mainstream's refusal to govern alongside these parties has inadverte