In the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, a region still shaped by the long shadow of division and reunification, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland has achieved its strongest postwar electoral result, capturing 43.8 percent of the vote and doubling its support from five years prior. The victory, celebrated by Elon Musk and amplified by Russian and American voices, arrives at a moment when Europe is reckoning with the distance between democratic institutions and the populations they claim to serve. Yet electoral triumph has not yielded governing power — every mainstream party has re