East Germany has a lower population than West Germany so this doesn’t fully translate to a 50-50 split. I think overall national polls put the AfD at 27%, ahead of the CDU which is at 24%. SPD is now in a distant third place. The trend over the past years has been in favor of the AfD and further growth is to be expected. This growth will come at the expense of the CDU more than any of the other parties, as it is CDU voters and non-voters who are most likely to switch over to the AfD. The CDU will then probably enter into coalition with the AfD when they can no longer form a government otherwise, unless the SPD somehow manages to miraculously recover. It’s either that or they ban the AfD.
Seems east Germans are generally skeptical of the centrist ruling coalition overall, there is also higher interest for both Linke and BSW compared to the west.
Yes. This is correct. The liberal ideological conditioning has not had as much time to become firmly rooted in the minds of East Germans as it did in the West.
Unfortunately, since the ideological rug was pulled out from under the East Germans with the annexation (really a hostile takeover) of the GDR, this left them floundering and groping in the dark for ideological alternatives. And though the aggressive “de-communization” campaign waged in the East, not only economic through sweeping privatization but also with an aggressive rewriting of the educational curriculum and a blacklisting of socialists in academia, government and media, tried very hard to reprogram the people to buy into the dominant liberal ideology, it did not fully succeed, especially where the ideology clashed with the lived reality.
On the one hand this means that they are more open to anti-hegemonic, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist alternatives, but on the other hand the profound shock and economic trauma of the “re-unification” has also opened up the door to resurgent far right ideology, ironically imported from the West of Germany where Nazism was kept alive throughout the Cold War.
It also definitely doesn’t help that economic conditions are still much worse in the East after the GDR’s industries, many of which were acquired by West German capital, were looted and dismantled after the annexation, at the same time as the previously existing robust social safety nets and social guarantees were replaced with much more meagre alternatives. For all the high-minded rhetoric about “cheerful re-unification of a divided family” the reality was more akin to one country losing a war and being conquered and plundered by another. The meagre attempts at pretending to help the East with the so-called “Solidaritätszuschlag” fell far short of what was needed to compensate for this devastation.
So, it was too early to say “Good Bye, Lenin!”
the left has more potential votes than the greens this is really interesting and the only thing that gives me hope in this situation.
Unfortunately Die Linke is not a real opposition party anymore. More often than not they rubber stamp whatever the Greens and the SPD want. Their one saving grace is that as CDU and SPD likely continue to decline (though slowly because both have a certain dedicated voter core that has voted them for generations and will continue to do so reflexively no matter what), the Linke and unfortunately also the Greens will continue to see some modest growth as new voters turn 18, because they are primarily the parties that young people are attracted to.
This will not be enough to outpace the growth of the AfD because the systemic problems that Germany is facing will continue to lead to worsening material conditions which the neoliberal establishment is inherently incapable of addressing or even really acknowledging, and the mild liberal socdem policies of the Linke will not be enough to reverse this. Meanwhile the Greens’ and the other legacy parties’ obsession with rearmament, along with the austerity that is necessary for their warmongering, will only exacerbate those conditions.
the german media’s manufactured consent is generally insane, there is a very large bubble of online leftists that call themselves “left” and “antifa” but support parties like the spd and greens and left wing neoliberal policies. they treat afd voters like afd party members and just laugh and cancel them for the slightest idiotic thing a common politically illiterate sometimes says. instead of creating unity as a class they ostracise them even more. i dont know how someone can have so little understanding of human nature, that when you give someone hate they will eventually give it back and will only solidify their political opinion.
the enemy are the industrialists, not the workers that are being manipulated by them.
i guess the 40% voting results is for a large part because of the general lack of empathy for one another that this capitalist shit system endorses.
germany is so cooked
there is a very large bubble of online leftists that call themselves “left” and “antifa” but support parties like the spd and greens and left wing neoliberal policies.
Yep. When you can give people the illusion of radicalism and progressivism this is unfortunately a very effective firewall against the real systemic change and revolutionary policies.
i dont know how someone can have so little understanding of human nature, that when you give someone hate they will eventually give it back and will only solidify their political opinion.
Exactly. And we can see this in practice in the results of this misguided strategy of how to deal with the AfD voters. It simply hasn’t worked. If you see again and again that what you are doing isn’t working and the problem instead keeps getting worse, perhaps you need to rethink your approach.
the enemy are the industrialists, not the workers that are being manipulated by them.
i guess the 40% voting results is for a large part because of the general lack of empathy for one another that this capitalist shit system endorses.
Precisely. People are being deliberately divided and misled into blaming the wrong people for their problems so that they don’t start pointing fingers at the real culprits.
germany is so cooked
Cannot agree more, comrade.
What’s the situation of DKP(KP)?
Pretty sure their votes are just dumped in the trashcan.
