In Saxony-Anhalt, Germany's far-right AfD has won the most votes in a state election, yet finds itself standing at the threshold of power without a key to the door. German democracy's coalition architecture — long a bulwark against extremist governance — is being tested by arithmetic: every mainstream party refuses to govern alongside the AfD, but a smaller populist party now holds the numbers that could change everything. The moment asks an old question in a new form: can democratic institutions contain what democratic processes have amplified?