In the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the far-right AfD has won a sweeping electoral victory, unsettling economists who see in the result not merely a regional political shift but a deeper signal of fracture within the German body politic. While state governments hold limited power over immigration and economic policy, the symbolic weight of the outcome may prove more consequential than any law the new government could pass — deterring the foreign skilled workers and investors that struggling eastern regions most urgently need. The vote, many argue, is less a mandate for the AfD's prog