The under-16 elections were originally meant to be a gentle introduction to democracy for German teenagers.
Democracy, however, does not always work quite the way its creators intended. When 4,700 schoolchildren cast their symbolic ballots in the eastern state of Brandenburg last week, the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) turned out to be by far their favourite popular party. It took 30 per cent of the total vote and as much as 45 per cent in some districts.
On Sunday the adult voters of Brandenburg are expected to administer a similarly stinging slap to the political establishment.
An election booth for the Alternative for Germany party and its youth organisation, Junge Alternative, in the eastern state of Thuringia, during a campaign event in August before regional elections
CLEMENT KASSER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Three weeks after the AfD won its first state election victory in Thuringia and nearly did the same in Saxony, polls suggest it is clinging on to a