Janis Ehling, the general secretary of the far-left party Die Linke, projected an air of nearly optimistic defiance on Sunday, even as his party faced defeat in the election.
He had initially been fearful about what an AfD win might mean, he told The New York Times. “But now I’m feeling more like we have to fight,” he said.
That echoed the tone of a speech he gave on Sunday evening, in which he urged supporters to resist an AfD-led government in Saxony-Anhalt if the far-right party wins an absolute majority. “Sometimes you get a punch in the nose,” he told the crowd. “And then, it’s important to stick together.”
