From left, Amira Mohamed Ali, co-leader of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), Jan van Aken, co-leader of the Left Party (Die Linke), Robert Habeck, Vice Chancellor and member of the

German The Left (Die Linke) party leader Heidi Reichinnek speaks during a session of the lower house of parliament Bundestag, after Christian Democratic Party (CDU) party leader Friedrich Merz succeeded in getting a motion passed in parliament that calls for a migration crackdown,

The successor to East Germany's Communist Party has made a late surge two weeks before a national election after its leader stood up in parliament to lash the front-running conservatives for breaking a historic taboo on cooperating with the far right.

Tuesday on the RealClearPolitics Podcast, Carl Cannon spoke with historian and Council on Foreign Relations fellow Liana Fix about the recent election results in Germany, where the mainstream conservative party led by Friedrich Merz captured the most votes and the further-right Alternative For Deutschland (AfD) party took second place.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Left Party jointly secured one third of seats in the new parliament, enough to block a loosening of Germany's debt brake - a mechanism some investors and political parties say stymies economic growth.

Germany’s mainstream conservatives have won the country’s national election, while a far-right party surged to become the country's second-largest party.

An alliance between Friedrich Merz’s conservatives and the center-left SPD is the only viable path to form a new government for Germany.

The leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the second largest party in parliament after Sunday's election, said Germany's likely next chancellor would be held hostage by left-wing parties that would seek to loosen tough fiscal rules.

He has vowed to prioritize European unity and the continent’s security as it grapples with the new Trump administration and Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“The End of Germany’s Climate Crusade.” That’s how a Politico headline last week described the country’s national elections held this past Sunday. The election was still days away, but opinion polls had already made clear that “one of the world’s most climate-ambitious governments will fall,” Karl Mathiesen wrote.

That said, the Left party has also found success in eastern Germany despite declining support in recent years. The Left evolved from the Socialist Unity Party, which ruled East Germany until ...