well for some analysis we can speak now to Thomas kig a professor of political science at the University of Manheim thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today can you first just explain why the afd is so popular in Eastern Germany there are multiple reasons one is about the frustration with the current federal government that's the most cited issue why people uh support not only by the way the afd uh she's the far right uh uh party which is likely to win but there's also a left-wing nationalist party uh Sara venes who will become second in both countries or in both States so more or less it's it's about a majority of Voters who support this Nationalist and new way of politics in those States and and I understand that those parties are particularly popular in the east in particular C can you explain kind of some of the reasons I mean why does Germany remain divided due to its World War II Legacy uh it's not only World War II of course there are some historical reasons but when we look more closely U both parties campaign against a German basic principle of the postwar time namely the Western orientation uh of west of Germany so they are in favor of collaborating or at least finding a peace solution with flood adir Putin's Russia that's one big issue in Eastern Germany a second is of course migration and um so it's more or less the question about whether more migrants should come to Germany and you mentioned that left-wing party led by Zara vagines uh what can you tell us about them and how they're shaping the political Dynamic and what what is their relationship with the afd uh if you think about a kind of a a two-dimensional perspective you have two nationalist parties one on the left-and side that's Zara VES she's a former leftwing party leader and uh now she has created her own party and from one day to another or within eight months uh she finds support by about 15% of the voters that's really surprising and uh the topics she is addressing are very similar to those of the afd namely um a nationalist way of migration and also uh a more less more peaceful collaboration with Russia reimporting energy from Russia and also stopping the support the military support of Ukraine and is there any chance that we could see those two parties decide to work together that's very unlike ly from let's say our studies we know that this support of both parties is more an emotional support so the people really love sares on the one side and also the afd leader ban herker who is a really rightwing person on the other side but they don't like each other so and therefore it's very unlikely that the two will form a coalition uh it's more likely that Zares will become decisive ining a government at least in Turing uh where at the moment at least we expect that there will no party um be able to form the government alone and given that expectation that that there are going to be negotiations taking place I mean what do you imagine that the new government is going to look like or or is there going to be deadlock uh deadlock not but we have already in Turing we have a minority Coalition that would be one solution and uh the other would be that that um we find a new way like let's say between SAR Nation the CDU uh and and some other party like the SPD uh that will form a government in Tura in Saxon it's a little bit different because there is a very popular uh CDU Minister President so it's likely that he will continue to form a government with uh the SPD and the greens perhaps all right we'll have to wait and see what happens Thomas kig thank you again again so much for your analysis today that's Thomas kig a professor of political science at the University of Manheim