Sunday was a good night for the members and supporters of Germany’s left-wing Die Linke party, as it picked up a historic 31 percent of the vote in the Thuringia state election. Led by Bodo Ramelow — the incumbent minister-president — it won resoundingly, bucking Die Linke’s otherwise largely downward trend in recent years.

Voters were rather less forgiving to Ramelow’s two erstwhile coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, which each took heavy losses. The outgoing “red-red-green” coalition lost its majority, and any future Ramelow administration will involve either a minority government or difficult negotiations with parties to his right.

Yet most alarming was the score for a party that won’t be in the next government. The right-populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), led by the demagogic Björn Höcke, doubled its result and is now the second-strongest party in the state.