‘It breaks my heart’: far-right’s big election victory sparks dismay in German state capital

Fears expressed for immigrants and for country’s future after AfD vote hits historic high in Saxony-Anhalt

Maryam and her best friend were ambling through Magdeburg toward the railway station, talking over the dramatic events of the previous evening and the surge by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland to a historically high vote in the Saxony-Anhalt elections.

“Don’t laugh at me,” she said, “but I wish we could go back to the days of Angela Merkel, when things were OK in Germany”.