New Delhi, Sept. 9 -- Ulrich Siegmund, who led the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) to a huge victory in weekend elections in the eastern province of Saxony-Anhalt, cuts a charismatic figure.

year-old, who usually wears an open-neck shirt and jeans, drives an East German moped called the Simson and is followed by supporters in the former East German province driving motorcycles made in East Germany before the country's 1990 unification, with a Trabant car making an odd appearance.

This heavy dose of nostalgia for a re-imagined glorious past is, of course, part of the appeal of right-wing populists everywhere, but Siegmund's press affairs secretary and other aides have well-documented links to a group modelled on the Hitler Youth...