AfD Wins Youth Vote, Secures Best Ever Result in West German State Election

The populist Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party secured its strongest ever result in a West German state election on Sunday, while winning the youth vote as the establishment Social Democrats continue to slide.

Nearly five million voters headed to the polls on Sunday in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the country’s sixth-largest state by population.

While the governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz won the evening with 31 per cent of the vote, slightly up from its 27.7 per cent showing in the previous election in 2021, the headlines emerging from Sunday focused on the collapse of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the strong showing by the AfD.

The SPD, which suffered a major defeat in the national elections last year, saw its support in the Rhineland plummet by nearly 10 points, from 35.7 per cent in 2021 to 25.9 per cent on Sunday.

However, perhaps most significant