The results are in. Angela Merkel will go into her 4th term as German chancellor, even though her party lost almost 10% and finishes short of an absolute majority. No big surprises here. Most of us expected the outcome, still, the election result is shocking. For the first time after World War II, a right-wing party will take a seat in the German parliament.
Watching from afar, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the results. My European heart shed tears, my European soul cried out in pain.
The AfD (Alternative for Germany -what a joke the name is) won over 13% of the votes, becoming the first overtly right-wing party to win seats in the country’s federal parliament in over half a century.
The good news is, neither one of the big parties consider working with them and I hope they stick with it. The bad news is, this will change German’s democracy for good -just the same way Brexit will change the democracy in the UK; just the same way Trump will change our democracy here in the U.S.
There were other surprises. Sunday’s biggest winner is the business-friendly free democratic party with around 10% of the votes, as well as the Left party with 9% and the Green Party with 9,5%. The big losers are Merkle’s party CSU/CDU Christian democratic political alliance with 38 % (down 8.7%) and the social democratic party with 20.8 % (down 4.9%.)
The trend, as seen in Great Britain and here in the U.S. continues. Voters seem to be fed up with the same old politics and show their disapproval by voting for smaller parties and that I can understand.
In the end, the voters in Germany will get what they want. Angela Merkel has to form a coalition with smaller parties now. If you ask me, that’s the true alternative, the smaller parties will have a say in all future decisions. Any coalition comes with a price -nothing is free, for sure not in politics.
As for the AfD, racism is never an alternative. Germany what have you done? Have you not learned from your own history?
Again, just wow! One can only hope that we “middle-of-the-roaders” who are probably in the majority will speak up and act out (or speak out and act up) sooner rather than later. This type of political nationalism is happening pretty much all over the world and not just in the “Western” world but in Asia and Africa, too. This pattern has happened before, I think, and we all came back from it, but only after a lot of death and destruction. I hope we don’t have to go that far this time around. Perhaps Macron, who appears to be something of a centrist, will lead the way in that direction, along with Trudeau of Canada, who also seems to be a centrist and more well-established leader.
Believe me, as a German I am just as devasted as you, add ashamed. I cannot believe what happened even though the results weren’t overly surprising. Please know that the majority of us despise the AFD and that we look to the future with great worry. Unity, love and common sense has never been more needed than now 💚💛
It will be interesting to see the geographic and demographic split of the vote. Even though they haven’t had any parliamentary seats since 1961 the far right in Germany has retained a nucleus of support in the south, particularly Bavaria. It would seem that this has spread on a much wider basis, and the vote needs to be understood to prevent further damage.
Ironically, the AfD won in “Sachsen/Anhalt,” what happens to be a part of the former Eastern Germany. The former communists are now all right-wing and are now a danger to the German democracy.
Yes, they said on our news that AfD had done well in the East. It’s scary: Brexit, Trump, and now a way back for the Nazis. I don’t like the way the world is going.
Seems like it’s the same all over, people are fed up and voting that way. Change is hard. And not always done in what would seem safe and careful ways.
Sadly, risk or protest votes do more harm than good.
Unfortunately, people don’t learn from history
Your observation is correct. In France it came down to le Pen and Macron – one the far right and the other a totally new party. In the end the new boy won. What is interesting is to understand why people are so fed up with the norm and to postulate where the trend will lead. The traditional parties would do well to spend much resource and time working that one out if they want to survive.
I am afraid that neighboring country the Netherlands will follow soon with mr. Cauliflower haircut Wilders ☹️
They already voted Gert Wilders out in March 2017, what is easy to google.
It has been in the works for a long time. If you dumb down the people and not teach them the TRUTH of past evils, you can sway them to believe anything. However, one day they will realize the horrible mistake they’ve made but it will be too late.
Dumbing down, we are doing it here in lightning speed.
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