The European elections will test the AfD’s strength

As Olaf Scholz gathers alongside other European leaders on the beaches of Northern France tomorrow to commemorate 80 years since the allied invasion of Normandy, the German Chancellor may have another D-Day in mind. Tomorrow morning, the polls open across the continent for the European parliamentary elections. 

Over the coming three days, voters in each EU member state will vote for candidates put forward by their home country’s national parties. The natural result of this model is that voters tend to cast their ballots based on domestic concerns, rather than what those MEPs might necessarily be able to do for them in Brussels. As such, for Scholz and his traffic light coalition, this is the first time Germans will be voting on their record in government – and likely also the first taste of what’s to come when Germany heads to the polls for its federal election in about 18 months’ time.

In the two and a half years since Scholz became Chancellor, barely a month has gone by without some parliamentary scrap between his SPD party and its FDP and Green party coalition partners. The