Extremism in Europe

The anti-Semitic extreme right is making electoral gains in Germany.

Note: the writing on the flag says "They were the best soldiers in the world."

To be fair, the three states mentioned in which these knuckle-draggers have, or soon will have, representation in the legislature are all in what used to be East Germany, which has considerably less experience of tolerance and pluralism than does the western part of the country (in fact, anti-Semitism remains a pervasive problem in much of eastern Europe). Unemployment, which always fuels radicalism and xenophobia, is also much worse in eastern than in western Germany. But unified Germany is getting on for two decades old now. If this kind of rancid bigotry can still attract sizable -- actually, growing -- numbers of voters, the society as a whole can't be held entirely blameless.