The high expectations for the far-right AfD and the far-left BSW in the German polls – and which have just been borne out in the Thuringia and Saxony state elections – are unfortunately what many people in Germany and around Europe think of first when they hear about East Germany.
Of course, this is primarily a West German phenomenon, but it is also common among some East Germans. And it risks becoming a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: If the whole world keeps telling me that I have some kind of democratic deficit, then at some point I'll believe it myself.
