The victory of AfD in Saxony calls into question the effectiveness of the sanitary cordon against the far right in Europe. This unwritten pact between the remaining parties to proscribe the far right has been a tool to keep these parties away from power for at least a quarter of a century, but the constant increase in votes for the far right raises doubts about its long-term sustainability.
The peak of this strategy occurred in France in the 2002 presidential elections, when Jacques Chirac defeated Jean-Marie Le Pen. This victory was possible thanks to the frontal rejection of the rest of the parties to the then called National Front, an example that became a reference for all of Europe.
Since then, the so-called "republican front" has been a constant in French politics, functioning as an institutional barrier against the entry of the far right into government. However, the growing success of parties like AfD in Germany suggests that this mechanism may be losing effectiveness as a political tool.
The question that arises is whether the sanitary cordon, although it manages to keep the far right away from government positions, paradoxically ends up fueling its electoral growth by mobilizing its supporters against the political "establishment."
