Frauke Petry, leader of Alternative for Germany, on 12 February 2016'. Flickr/ Metropolico.org. Some rights reserved.
There have been two very different immigration debates under way in Germany of late, and the highly ambiguous results of the parliamentary elections held in three German states on 13 March have brought both to the surface more clearly than before.
The state elections as a referendum on immigration
The first debate now revolves around the remarkable gains made by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on the one hand – founded only three years ago, the party has been launching scathing attacks on the alleged ‘open-door policy’ of Angela Merkel’s conservative-led government – and the success, on the other, of each state’s incumbent governor in maintaining their parties’ simple majorities, two of whom are close allies of Merkel on the issue of immigration.
