Right-Wing Sentiment, Ready to Burst Its Dam in Germany

BERLIN — As anti-immigrant sentiment continues to sweep across Europe, generating a right-wing populist wave from the shores of the Mediterranean to the chilly reaches of Scandinavia, there is growing concern that such politics could take root here, too, in the fertile ground of financial uncertainty, rising anti-Muslim sentiment and a widening political vacuum left by the misfortunes of the once mighty Christian Democratic Union....

Since the end of World War II, German laws, political elites and social conventions have prevented right-wing parties from earning enough of a following to win seats in Parliament. The last time a far-right party came close to reaching the 5 percent threshold was in the 1970s, experts said.

But the nation’s political geography is being reshaped by strong gusts of discontent blowing in from different directions. Public resentments toward Europe were fanned by the German-led bailout of Greece, which Germans saw as paying for the profligacy and irresponsibility of others. At the same time, Germans, particularly younger generations, are feeling less constrained by their history and more comfortable in their national skin than at any time since World War II....