The AfD has failed to win three run-offs for mayor in major cities in Germany’s west, despite other gains. Meanwhile, the German foreign minister is to visit Poland as tensions grow over Russia’s aggression.
The AfD has failed to win three run-offs for mayor in major cities in Germany’s west, despite other gains. Meanwhile, the German foreign minister is to visit Poland as tensions grow over Russia’s aggression.
It’s partly because of how the German elections work. They are a multi-party system and have runoffs when no one wins more than 50% of the vote. The AfD might be the top polling party with only, say, 30%. They win the first round of elections because the opposition is split between many parties, but in the runoff, voters must choose between AfD and the second most popular party. Voters who don’t like the AfD can coalesce to elect the second party, regardless of how they voted in round 1.