A new path to power for the far right: Don’t moderate. Stay radical. – POLITICO

For years, Europe’s far right appeared to face a choice: Moderate, or remain on the margins. The Alternative for Germany party’s landslide victory in Saxony-Anhalt suggests there may be a third option — radicalize and win.

The party’s performance in last weekend’s election, where it raked in 44% of the vote, shattered a widely shared illusion among the European mainstream that the far right was somehow destined to mellow on its way to power.

That has broadly been the path taken by Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and France’s Marine Le Pen. The Italian prime minister’s tilt to the mainstream, especially when it comes to the EU and NATO, has given a name to the phenomenon: “Melonization.” Le Pen, for her part, has spent years “de-demonizing” her party, dropping calls to leave the EU and distancing the party from Russia after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.