Shortly before the state elections on Sunday, the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, expressed a wish.

The departure of the AfD from the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament a week ago should be “just a start”, said the CDU politician on the t-online portal.

When the first indications of the election result came early on Sunday afternoon, it looked as if this wish would not be fulfilled.

But then the predictions for the AfD slip towards the five percent mark.

The 7.4 percent result that the right-wing party got in 2017 in the most populous country is moving into the distance.

Eckhart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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In the first projections in the evening, the result is just above the five percent mark.

The AfD seems to be able to hold its own in the state parliament on the Rhine.

He was "satisfied for the time being" that "in all probability" it was successful, says the federal chairman of the AfD, Tino Chrupalla.

"Nevertheless, we are not completely satisfied." The party will need an "West initiative," says Chrupalla, referring to his party's mediocre results in West Germany in the most recent elections, which contrast with good or even very good results in the East.

This will be discussed at the next federal party conference.

In any case, the situation of the AfD in Germany and in federal politics is completely different from 2017. At that time, all signs pointed to success.

Just one year after it was founded, the “Alternative for Germany” entered the first state parliament, the Saxon one.

The AfD was less to the right than it is today and had not become nearly as radical as it was supposed to be.

After the Saxon one, the AfD came into one state parliament after another.

In the spring of 2017, she moved into the state parliament in Düsseldorf, and only a few months later into the Bundestag.

The right-wing party was supported by a nationwide representation in the federal states, especially in East Germany.

After Angela Merkel had struggled to assemble her last grand coalition, the AfD was the largest opposition party ahead of the FDP and the Greens.

She gained attention with often unrestrained provocations in the Bundestag sessions.

In this respect, the current development is a backward movement.

The Union has taken on the role of the strongest opposition party.

Since Friedrich Merz is not only the party leader of the CDU, but also the leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, he has been the undisputed leader of the opposition.

The AfD has not only lost its leading role numerically, but also no longer has a dominant figure, as the parliamentary group leader Alexander Gauland was at least for some time in the previous legislative period.

Leaving the state parliament in Kiel at least tempts the political competition to see it as another sign of decline.

Content is added.

With Russia's attack on Ukraine, even the pro-Russian AfD is no longer able to agitate alongside their idol, Putin, against a Western-European course.

You have to rely on auxiliary constructions.

Two days before the elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, Chrupalla sent out a statement saying that the majority of Germans were afraid of being drawn into the war by the federal government's course.

Instead of wooing voters with a radical course, the AfD has to maneuver.

Whichever coalition ends up governing in Düsseldorf: the AfD will not be part of it.