“Success” of Far Right: Germany
By: Bilkent Pdk
Tags: Politics, English, Far Right, Germany

Alexander Gauland delivers a speech during the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) congress in Hanover, Germany, December 2, 2017. (Reuters)

“If we were to take 200 million African migrants, with all respect would Europe still be Europe?”

-Alexander Gauland, currently the Leader of Alternative für Deutschland in Bundestag

(BBC News, 2019)

Most often the far right of the political spectrum has been associated with certain countries, because of their history with it. The first one on the list is Germany where, to this day, government has to implement certain laws to prevent the ramifications of Hitler and his Nazi Party: Distributing or displaying symbols of the Nazi era, including but not limited to, swastikas and the Hitler salute; Holocaust denial, besmirching an individual or a group based on their ethnicity or religion, or promoting violence against them is illegal in the country (Sauerbrey, 2020). So, how does Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a party that is strictly anti- immigrant, anti-EU and suggests that Germany is colonized by Islam, can become the largest opposition in Bundestag, German parliament, as a result of the 2017 elections (BBC News, 2019)?

The distribution of seats in the 19th German Bundestag based on the official results (CDU and CSU are sister parties and forming the coalition government with SPD)

What their success means for Germany and European Union, will it last and will the party and its supporters become more extreme as time progresses, remain as a mystery and topics of debate for now. What is certain is, the media attention they gained will have a negative impact on immigrants and refugees currently residing in Germany. In this essay, I will talk about what is the secret of AfD’s success, how this success may be fragile and how the party’s presence in the country has already fueled more racism and violence against minorities.

As you know, just like any other political party, AfD followed a certain campaigning style before the election of 2017. However, it cannot be denied that the history of Eastern Germany and Angela Merkel’s policies did not serve as a boost for the party. After the unification of the country the transition from centrally planned economy to a free market in the East meant mass unemployment, migration to the West, Eastern companies going bankrupt and Western companies taking over those businesses that survived the unification (Göldner, 2020). Following the unification West has developed more than the East and it happened faster. As a result, these citizens see themselves as the victim of neglect from their government for over thirty years while it should be noted that this gap can be explained with other factors in play (Göldner, 2020). AfD has managed to exploit this mindset by proposing themselves as the party of East German interests and as an alternative to the mainstream parties, the citizens of East feel abandoned by (Göldner, 2020). This also gives the party the advantage of being able to carry out its anti-immigration and anti-EU agenda, using the protection of East German interests and traditions as a cover. Another reason why AfD is clearly strong in the East is that while some voters do believe in their xenophobic and extremist views, many others choose to ignore these and cast their votes for AfD as way of protest against the current government, resulting from the years of frustration (Göldner, 2020).

What adds onto these historical factors is Angela Merkel’s “Willkommenpolitik”, which translates to welcoming policy, regarding the refugee crisis in 2015. This policy gave the grounds for AfD to showcase their conservative views and the idea that “Germany belongs to Germans”. This policy and AfD’s way of marketing it, pushed some non-voters to the ballot and some mainstream party voters to switch their vote (Mudde, 2017). This might have also created the thought in the Eastern part of the country that these refugees would get the attention they did not get from the government, which resulted in AfD having a stronger ground in the East.

In addition to these factors; the party’s internet presence, their ability to play the victim and to use provocation as a way to get media’s attention, certainly helped on their way to victory in 2017. While an internet presence surely helps to get the word out about their policies and actions, it may also help securing future victories for the party, since Internet and especially social media users are relatively younger and more susceptible to influence. To show how active AfD is, a study by the Oxford University can be referred to; where they found out AfD was by far the most active German political party on Twitter (Peters, 2018). And when it comes to playing the victim and gaining sympathy among the moderates within their party and non-voters, they do not have to try too much:

Graffiti on the Headquarters of AfD

Their headquarters in Schwerin was attacked by protestors in 2018 (Hill, 2018) and Alice Weidel (Leader of AfD) walked out of a televised debate and later declared that the moderator had mistreated her (Peters, 2018). These are two examples of many which can give an insight regarding the kind of reaction they face from the population that does not agree with their stance. Using certain amounts of provocation in certain times and places is another weapon AfD wielded professionally: Party chairwoman Frauke Petry called for the use of firearms against refugees along the border in case of emergency and her deputy Beatrix von Storch wrote that women and children should be allowed to bear arms (Peters, 2018). These remarks by the members of the party, brought them significant media attention which helped them leave an impression in public.

On the other side of the discourse, people believe that this victory will not sustain itself, so in the long run it is no victory at all. Some experts believe that AfD is not a real people’s party and that it has a quite homogeneous community voting for them; this community being mostly males who are responsive to nationalistic ideas (Güllner, 2019). In addition to the possibility of being unable to gain additional voter support from outside this community, AfD faces a problem regarding the persistence of support: It was found that 60% of voters voted “against all parties” and only 34% voted out of conviction for AfD (Mudde, 2017). In addition to this, it may not be possible to gain support from outside the party because only 12% of all Germans were satisfied with the political work of Alexander Gauland, who was the co-leader of AfD from 2017 to 2019. This clearly means that simply if there is a better option as a political party for the voters, AfD may lose the wind behind them. Especially with the number of non-voters they encouraged to moving, any election’s tide can change.

In the beginning I mentioned that the media attention AfD is getting will affect refugees and immigrants’ lives. However, this may have become a reality already: The Leipzig authoritarianism study found that 44% of Germans surveyed wanted a ban on Muslim immigration in 2018, compared to 36,5% in 2014 and one-in-two Germans said Muslims make them feel like a stranger in 2018, again compared to 43% in 2014 (Nielsen, 2018). In addition to this, according to a government dataset compiled by Der Spiegel magazine, Germany hosted 289 far-right events in 2017 which is the highest number since 2005 (Nielsen, 2018). If or when these events become violent the moderate voters of AfD may choose a way out, taking AfD’s power with them, but along with these mentioned events AfD’s presence in the media and parliament may encourage those who agree with them but had to hide it away before.

AfD’s 2017 victory continues to add onto the uncertainty of the times we are living through. Even if we are not residents of Germany, we should be concerned about a country and a world where these kinds of ideas can win elections. Even though it can be predicted that Alternative für Deutschland cannot come to a position of power without softening any present or future radical sides of it and would continue to be only an opposition party; the ideas they fanned the flames of, will haunt Germany and anyone that is a target to their hate. Time will tell the rest of the story.