Bavarian state election 2018

33-year-old Bavarian Green party leader Katharina Schulze is young and vivacious.  Neither the AfD nor the other parties had such a charismatic leader on display.

By Carolyn Yeager

The biggest gainer in today's Baravian state election is the left-wing Green Party with a current gain of around 9 points over its 2013 result. That is, if you don't include the gain of over 10 points by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which rose from zero in 2013 since they were not on the ballot then.

The AfD was only formed in 2013 and in those five years has risen to a position hovering between 2nd and 3rd most popular in Germany as a whole. In conservative Bavaria today, though, they came in fourth, following closely behind a right-leaning Southern Germany party called "Free Voters."