On 6 September, elections to the state parliament will be held in the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. Such votes attract little interest from most European and global media outlets, which see them as parochial events.
But these local elections will be different.
The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party is expected to win by a wide margin. It could receive 40 percent of all votes, and has even said its aim is to dominate sufficiently to govern alone.
If that happened, it would be the first time since World War II that a party with links to the far right governed a German federal state.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution — the domestic intelligence service — classifies the AfD as a demonstrably right-wing extremist party.
