>There's a general malaise throughout this continent of Europe

The continent is remarkably resilient, we just love to complain. The fact that we're handling a de facto war with Russia, an energy crisis, a trade crisis and about half a dozen other crises with merely moderate amount of pain is a sign of strength, not the opposite. Five years ago people were claiming we'd freeze to death.

And I'm saying that as a German who can't stand the AfD as much as anyone else, the fact that they sit at 40% in our poorest region of two million people (where a third has emigrated over the last two decades) maybe shouldn't send you into a panic. That's Germany's version of rural Alabama. Turns out we're not exceptionally immune to populism in times of stress.

AUR (our local extremist party here in Romania) is also at 40%, the thing is that the powers that be have stopped having elections here because of that. Don’t act like this it will last, because it won’t, the wealthy regions in countries like Germany ard the exception by now, not the norm.