On Sunday, Germany took a huge step to the right.
The conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) ran a campaign focused on law and order and halting immigration — and overtook Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) as the largest party in the Bundestag, with 28.6 percent of the vote.
Far-right figures across the world were even more jubilant over the nationalist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) becoming the second strongest force, with 20.8 percent support. This is a height not reached by a far-right party in Germany since the Nazi era. Congratulations came pouring in from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Matteo Salvini, and Elon Musk.
The parties of the previous governing coalition had all taken a hit. The SPD fell nearly ten points to 16.4 percent, the Greens slipped to 11.6 percent, and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) dropped out of parliament entirely, missing the 5 percent threshold.
Sunday’s elections were held about six months earlier than expected after Chancellor Scholz fired his finance minister, Christian Lindner, the head of his FDP coalition partners. The inevitable consequence: Scholz lost a vote of no-confidence, triggering these early elections.
The campaign period was dominated by heated discussion of immigration, enflamed by two terrorist attacks and the collaboration between the CDU and AfD in passing a parliamentary motion on curbing immigration. This weakening of the already-unstable “firewall” of noncooperation with the AfD led to protests — and wide-ranging condemnation of CDU leader Friedrich Merz.
It was in this rather dismal context that the prospects of socialist party Die Linke first began to take a turn for the better. This last-minute burst of “anti-fascist” energy and discontent…
Auteur: Julia Damphouse
