In the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the far-right Alternative for Germany party won 43.8 percent of the vote — more than doubling its previous result — yet fell three seats short of the absolute majority needed to govern alone. The result marks the closest a far-right party has come to leading a German state since World War II, arriving at a moment when the mainstream center-right has collapsed in a region it governed for a quarter century. Germany now faces a question older than any election: what happens when the strongest force is deemed unfit to lead, and those deemed fit lack th