Let's wait and see. I'm not yet convinced that SPD is willing to enter the government for another 4 years, not with AfD as strongest oppositional party. The whole thing might become a first, with CDU/CSU and two minor parties forming a coalition on national level.

Although the winner is... Not of my liking. The "real" winner (especially this time round), is rarely the frontier, holding the golden trophy. I put my trust and money bet, on the, let's say, "copper trophy"! Copper might not be as pricey and fancy as gold (or silver), but it is very useful and has practical qualities/properties. You can always rely on it to get the job done, people dearest who feel threatened by INACTION. Golden boys (or should i say, ladies), have allergy to work (especially from all that burden and responsibilities, that would ensue out of it).

This thread beat the odds and remained perfectly civil without devolving into a toxic dumpster fire Superfund* site.

*Superfunds are a American thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfund

Election day is over, but, man, that are some repercussions! The election campaign was very boring, but nevertheless voters turnout has increased by 4% compared to last time, which is a good sign. There is even more choice now on the table.

Although Angela Merkel can still continue, she would be in a rather weak position and another round of election cannot be excluded at this time. Not as weak as Theresa May maybe, but surely not as strong as Emmanuel Macron either.

I'm not sure this election even marks a shift to the right. It's more like a protest vote and many votes for the new right/far-right/nationalist/populist party (without much of a diverse agenda but who needs that anyway) are coming from former left voters (more so from former center-right voters though) if you can believe the statistics. Since people do not change their left-right views just like this, it means there are so many more dimensions to it.

The new party is not overly social and is even completely without ideas for many fields, but it has a strong national and EU skeptic emphasis. In that way this is a sign of normality. What we have seen in other countries in Europe and the world now also takes place in Germany. The refugee crisis of 2015 surely also has plaid a role, but I'm not sure how much (the party already existed way before).

Of course, it's also the novelty effect and some protest votes. In the end it means some well paid jobs with no further requirements and I expect a lot of provocations during the next legislative period but not much good. Unfortunately, the media has a habit of jumping at those who scream the loudest and the most craziest things first.

I, personally, should probably take it as kind of a wake-up call. So far, I could easily pretend it all happened somewhere else, far away. Instead of just passively voting, I guess I better consider becoming more active. It's not easy but just hoping that the right/nationalistic party fails by itself (not too unrealistic) might be too risky.

Fun fact: The new party got most votes in the area of Germany with the fewest non-always-have-been-German people living and vice versa. The fear of the unknown still trumps the fear of the known. Nevertheless the fear is real.

I'm not a big fan of "lockpick-phrases", which explains everything with one argument....

However I've noticed, that most of the political parties in Europe, considered by media as "populistic", which are recently gathering big amount of votes, are articulating needs of "common people" in far better way than those "mainstream-ed". In different way (e.g. UKIP has articulated correctly thoughts of "common Englishman" regarding UE restrictions and regulations, while PiS has articulated correctly the big "hole" in incomes between "white collars" in big cities and people from many regions of Poland, who are working hard and have barely funds to live from month to month). There are some exceptions though (I believe that there are more concerning problems for France rather than getting back to national currency in France, and by some bizzare reason FN has made it one of the most important topics in their agenda). Nevertheless, those things are noticeable only if we're analysing what representants of various political parties are declaring (and doing, if they're currently in government) and comparing them with actual state of society, their incomes etc. And I'm afraid that this part is very often missing in optics of those, who are giving the same opinion about all "populistic" parties.

I doubt how much mainstream the AfD catches. It likes to present itself that way but more than 80% of the votes went to parties that - across the board - fundamentally opposes them.

Otherwise, and crucially, the big problem with Populist parties is that they might address problems - but don't present any solutions, whatsoever. See, case in point, Brexit and Ukip. There was and is no coherent plan as to how actually to do 'better' - or even what the status afterwards ought to be. UKIP had plenty of time to formulate that - it doesn't suggest anything.

Mnemon - that depends. In Poland new government has articulated and executed suprisingly good provided solutions - polish economists are at this point quite surprised, that despite typically "re-distributive" solutions (like 500+ program), plus better catching the "VAT-thieves" (real plague in Poland) + other actions in direction of "sealing" the tax system, didn't provide too much negative impact, but on the contrary - has "awaken" the "inner" consumption and provide some boost to level of life for many people who were earning rather small amount of money. Not to mention about good ratings from various agencies, influence of capital, lower "budget hole" than expected (still present, but it's sadly the common thing in Poland since 90') etc.

it's not said that we can stay with the current model forever (probably not), but still, it was fairly accurate diagnosis and suprisingly effective solution.

There is quite similar thing with Fidesz and Hungary, but there is one thing worth to mention - so far we've got only cases with Poland and Hungary, where those "hated" parties came to power and had real influence on country's policy. We can't say about the same situation in case of UKIP, FN etc (which are generally considering having any representation in parliment as the "success".

Down with capitalism! Bring back the Stasi!

Fair enough - but the AfD categorically isn't that organised. They don't even have internally finalised their policies. To a large part because they used to be a neo-liberal party, mainly, to the right of the FDP - vowing to quit the Euro. the AfD today is a quite different far further right party; with completely different people steering it, among internal disagreement. That Frauke Petry just stepped down really is an extension of that. She'd tried to keep it on a more moderate course, tried to exclude extreme members from the party, but lost that battle to the more nationalistic / fascist wing. There's no coherent plan that has come out of that internal struggle.

When will Germans vote out those censorship Nazis that want to ban every fucking PC game and console game that has a little bit of violence in it? For people who are progressive when it comes to most things, they are not very progressive when it comes to PC games and console games.

It's not censored but just age limited. If you are old enough you can have all the violence you like.

1. Tossing around the word "Nazi" around so liberally in the midst of a political discussion among Germans who take the threat of National Socialism VERY seriously is hardly going to net you kind responses.

2. There has been some pretty strong reform of censorship in Germany over the past 15 years or so, almost all of it for the better. The reform of the Youth Protection Act in 2002 requires USK certification for games to be sold on the open market (or else they're treated as being rated 18), but banned blacklisting ("indexing") of games that already had USK certificates under the new system. The BPjM (the body responsible for this "blacklisting") has become notably more liberal over the years to the point where very few games get blacklisted or censored nowadays.

3. Your comment coming from a country where even the slightest hint of sexuality gets the ESRB and moral guardians in a stir.
You can more or less split the AfD down to the "western" faction and "eastern" faction. The western faction are essentially (mostly) what you would term "nationalist" - not Nazi, but still rather unpleasant. The eastern factions on the other hand tend to be overtly Neonazi in their character. As you say, Frauke Petry represented the "moderate" wing, if you want to call it that, while Gauland and von Storch essentially represent the extremist elements of the party.

to trash a few million people because ~20% voted for the "wrong" party ... *smh*
very quick way to throw away any moral high ground (that you supposedly had)
also yeah democracy ...

"let's throw everybody out who doesn't fit in politically ..."
you would fit right in the eastern mindset that you describe :p

This isn't just about 20% voting for the "wrong" party (and for what it's worth, it's more like 40% when you include Die Linke, who are just as anti-democratically minded as the AfD). It's about years of very bad experience with the Eastern States. It's about having to go to Saxony-Anhalt and MeckPom to teach English and end up in debates about why English isn't necessary and is just a tool of "political oppressors" trying to "suppress German identity", it's about driving through villages and seeing swastika flags openly flown. It's about countless issues with Neonazis coming in from Rostock to cause havoc in my home city.

There are millions of decent people in the East, I get it. But the fact remains that the East - Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony in particular - are fundamentally dysfunctional regions where "rule of law"/"Rechtsstaatlichkeit" is apparently a very malleable construct.

On second thought, i had a private conversation with someone who knows things better, from there, from the inside. I made a mistake here and i apologize. Best wishes to everyone.