Is the AfD Too Extreme for Democracy?

In the year leading up to Germany’s February elections, the far-right party Alternative for Germany was rising fast in the polls. It would ultimately increase its seats in the Bundestag from 76 to 152. But when I talked with supporters, I found that they were cynical. One of the most consistent messages I heard when I visited Germany was that the government had rigged the game against them. “It’s not just the opposing parties that don’t want us; the system itself doesn’t want us,” said a member of the crowd at a rally in Thuringia. Now that claim seems undeniable.