That's a really good point, and honestly a fair one. If the "alternative" is the only place people feel heard, the failure isn't only on their side. It's everyone else's - mainstream and actual alternatives included.

And you're right about Weidel. She worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. So yeah. "Anti-establishment" from someone who came straight out of the establishment's finance wing. That's not an accident either. That's who they actually serve, and it's not the people voting for them out of frustration.

On your list of parties: The Greens are representing big business too, meanwhile.

The APPD comparison is interesting too. A protest vote, meant to shake the mainstream awake, not meant to actually govern. Maybe that theory made sense once. But Sachsen-Anhalt just proved the AfD isn't staying a protest anymore. 43.8% isn't a wake-up call. It's a government. At some point "protest vote" stops being a good explanation for what's happening.

And yes - maybe the U18 result really was the more honest read of where things could go. Not proof of anything yet but maybe it's proof that when people actually look for who represents them instead of just who's loudest against everyone else, they land somewhere very different. Fingers crossed for future generations..