After the Berlin election: what does the success of the right-wing AfD mean?

Last Sunday’s state elections in Berlin provided conclusive proof, if it were needed, that the right-wrong populist party “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) threatens the settled and often cosy world of German politics. As in other German state elections, such as the recent shock result in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the AfD took votes from all the mainstream parties. But the political class has been particularly shocked by the fact that this has happened in the nation’s capital.