Germany’s rampant hard-right AfD puts other parties in a fix

September 10thwasADADAD a good day for Jörg Prophet, but not a great one. Opinion polls had promised that the trim 61-year-old engineer might win in the first round and romp home as the new mayor of Nordhausen, a quiet town of 42,000 in the lee of the rolling Harz Mountains in eastern Germany. Instead he got 42% of the vote, more than any challenger but short of a majority. Now, in a run-off, Mr Prophet may find all the opposing stripes united to keep his Alternative for Germany (f) out.That would be no surprise to the hard-right party. Founded in 2013, the f has struggled to turn the liking of many Germans for its folksy fear-mongering into actual political power. The party’s popularity surged in 2016 as conservatives recoiled against an influx of Syrian refugees. But in the absence of another emotive issue it then plateaued at around 10%, enough to keep f deputies in state and national assemblies with proportional representation, but not to win local elections .