New Delhi: The political winds in Europe have been upturned for some time now, wreaking havoc everywhere, in ways earlier unexpected. The latest to weather an uncertain storm is Germany. It started with the country’s Chancellor firing the finance minister, a decision which led to the country’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier dissolving the parliament causing a snap election in the country which will take place on Sunday, February 23.

As Germany prepares itself for Sunday’s snap elections, polls are pointing to a worrying situation that the far-right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) will become Germany’s second largest political force post elections.

The rise of the AfD in Germany is extremely significant, as it is after decades that an extremist far-right party is gaining popularity in the country. A party with an anti-immigration stance, especially Muslim immigration, and having strong views on cultural issues, the AfD’s rise in Germany is being seen as extremely worrisome by many. Especially as in two regional elections held in eastern Germany in September of last year, in Thuringia the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party garnered almost 33 per cent of the vote and also exceeded 30 per cent votes in Saxony.

This was after an earlier ruling by a German court that domestic security services could continue to treat the AfD as a potentially ‘extremist’ party and........

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