According to some, and rather predictably, it's the ubiquitous “far right” which has increased its vote-share in Germany recently. In parallel with this, Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a serious defeat in her own home state. Polls in the Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania region have shown that Merkel's Christian Democratic Party (CDP) took second place to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. (The “Christian” in “Christian Democratic Party” is by now -- after over 70 years -- a mere nominal description.) The AfD got 22% of the votes; and that means that it now has seats in 11 regional parliaments. The obvious result of all this is that it is unlikely that Merkel will win Germany's general election next year. The interesting thing is, though, that despite all this gush about “the far right”, many supporters of AfD have moved over from the traditional German parties, including the 23,000 from Merkel's very own...(Read Full Article)