While the SPD – party of the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz – may have won another term at the helm of Brandenburg’s state parliament yesterday, it is hard to consider them the true winners of the night. That accolade, instead, jointly goes to the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW).

The AfD may sit on the far-Right of German politics and the BSW on the far-Left, but the two parties are more similar than they would care to admit. Both are anti-establishment, anti-Ukraine and – critically for Scholz and his party – anti-immigration. With crime, in particular that committed by those born outside Germany, on the rise in the country, both parties have spent the summer making hay at the expense of the government in Berlin on the subject of migration. Two terror attacks committed by failed asylum seekers in the past three months have strengthened both parties’ arguments in favour of a migration crackdown and increased deportations.

In last night’s vote, the AfD came in second, winning just under 30 per cent of the vote, losing out to the SPD by just over a percentage point. Meanwhile, the BSW – founded just nine months ago – gained an impressive 13 per cent of the vote. The parties performed similarly well in state elections held in Saxony and Thuringia at the start of the month, setting them up well for next year’s federal election.