Opinion: It was like any ordinary, late-summer Sunday in Berlin: flea markets bustling, couples brunching, kids bicycling. Everything seemed so nice and calm ‒ an urban weekend idyll. But less than two hours’ drive away, what local media would later describe as a “debacle for liberal democracy” and a “frightening and terrible” turning point for Germany was in development.
On September 1, elections were held for local parliaments in two eastern states, Thuringia and Saxony. And almost exactly 85 years after Nazi Germany invaded Poland and started World War II, a far-right political party would win a state election in the country.
On that sunny Sunday, around a third of all voters cast their ballot for the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party. Senior AfD member Björn Höcke has previously gone to court for using a Nazi slogan (illegal in Germany) and AfD party chapters are classified as “potentially extremist” by the country’s domestic spy agency.
By evening, the terms “Schande” (shame) and “Faschismus” were trending on German social media. Serious newsreaders announced themselves seriously concerned and people gathered outside Thuringia’s state legislature to sadly sing left-wing solidarity songs. Meanwhile, AfD supporters argued that if Germany truly was a democracy, they should now be in power.
Happily for the sad singers and seriously concerned newsreaders, that’s unlikely. All other German political parties have said they won’t break through what is known as “the firewall” between themselves and the far right to govern with the AfD.
The most likely outcome will be minority coalition governments in both states. This means smirky Höcke, with his penchant for harking back to the good old days and waving with a suspiciously straight elbow and an open palm, like, you know, when Hitler was in charge, won’t get to be boss of either state.
But that doesn’t rule out a slow, brick-by-brick, breakdown of the firewall. Minority coalitions will be forced to co-operate with the AfD to pass laws. Additionally, the far-right success is also seen as a sign of how the current left-leaning German federal government, which has only another year left in power, is seen. That may well end up the most damaging aspect of these state elections.
The AfD isn’t particularly original among far-right, anti-establishment parties doing well in Europe. Their policies are also anti-immigration and pro-nationalist and they prize ultra-conservative values.
Just like their counterparts in France and Italy, they’ve been polling well for months. As a result, a lot of Germany’s mainstream politicians, including those from more liberal parties, seem to have decided mimicking them might help.
A deadly knife attack in the western German city of Solingen by a Syrian eligible for deportation, and eventually claimed by the extremist Islamic State group, resulted in further tightening of rules around asylum. Germany also deported 28 Afghan men to Kabul, for the first time since the Taliban took power there three years ago. Probably not a coincidence that this happened just a few days before these elections.
The AfD blames foreigners for the country’s woes and has called for “remigration”, where all non-Germans leave the country. It’s almost as idiotic as Brexit.
Especially when, in reality, the reasons for Germany’s woes include an ageing population, neglected infrastructure, a stagnating economy, way too much bureaucracy and a misplaced sense of superiority.
Immigrants have nothing to do with any of that. Yet around 40% of younger voters in Thuringia and Saxony who chose the AfD were somehow convinced they do.
Unless Germany’s mainstream politicians can better explain all that – rather than merrily bounding along behind the far-right bandwagon – it hardly bodes well for the future.
Cathrin Schaer is a freelance journalist living in Berlin.
