There's something about Zara. Does anyone represent the crisis facing traditional parties more than Germany's upstart proponent of, as she calls it, left conservatism?

That would be Zara Wagenknecht, who's pushing far-left economics and strict immigration policies.

Her new party is poised to do well in local elections this weekend in Eastern Germany.

And poised to do really well?

The far-right alternative for Germany.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Schultz's social Democrats are floundering,

and his coalition partners might not even scrape past the 5% threshold.

Once again, it's the issue of migration that's bubbling up to the top of the political

agenda heading into these elections.

What's going on here?

German politics are usually predictable, often to the point of being boring.

Are we on the cusp of seeing things take a wild turn?

I'm Sarah Wheaton, host of EU Confidential.

Later in the episode, we'll zoom out for a global picture. Our guest is

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anna Applebaum. Her new book, Autocracy Inc., delves into how

authoritarian regimes are banding together against democracies, including the EU. She argues that the

fight against corruption and kleptocracy is key to handling

rogue states, but sometimes it takes political guts when dealing with problematic partners.

Hungary more and more is acting not just like a difficult member state, but actually is an

enemy of the EU. And Orban attacks the EU in his speeches and in his

propaganda. At some point, not actually at some point, soon, I think the EU may have to make a more

dramatic decision about Hungary and may have to find a way of expelling them or suspending them.

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