{"id":16207,"date":"2017-10-22T12:47:38","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T04:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=16207"},"modified":"2017-10-22T12:47:38","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T04:47:38","slug":"germany-election-results-in-political-earthquake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2017\/10\/22\/16207\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany: Election results in political earthquake"},"content":{"rendered":"

A somewhat boring election campaign that ignored many of the issues ended in a political earthquake<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert Bechert, CWI<\/p>\n

For the first time in decades, a racist, right nationalist party, AfD (Alternative for Germany), entered the German parliament.<\/p>\n

While the AfD\u2019s entry into the Bundestag was expected, the size of its vote shocked many, despite its recent recovery in opinion polls. It jumped in as the third largest party with nearly 6 million votes, 12.6% of the total. The surge in AfD support, up from\u00a0just over 2 million votes\u00a0in 2013, is a sign of the unrest and dissatisfaction that has developed amongst sections across the country despite recent economic growth.<\/p>\n

However the AfD\u2019s election success provoked immediate protests. Many of the mainly young people who came out onto the streets were enraged at the success of a party whose leadership echo the language of the far right of the 1920s and 1930s. This energy and desire for action can be an important part of the rebuilding of a united movement that fights against the far right, the attacks the new right wing government is likely to introduce and for a socialist alternative.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After her lacklustre victory Merkel is now widely seen as a \u201clame duck\u201d leader. The centre \u2013right Bild, Germany\u2019s largest selling newspaper, ran a headline \u201cNightmare Victory for the Chancellor\u201d. The sharp fall in the votes of the outgoing coalition led the boss of the giant Siemens concern to describe the result as \u201ca defeat of the elites\u201d, while the head of industrial federation spoke of the \u201ctoxic\u201d risk of political uncertainty.<\/p>\n

This result will lead to a new polarisation, political instability and, possibly after a pause, struggles. On the one hand, there will be opposition and protests against the AfD. On the other hand, the most likely new government, a coalition of the Merkel led CDU\/CSU alliance, the liberal FDP and the Greens (a coalition nicknamed \u201cJamaica\u201d after the parties\u2019 colours), will attempt to pursue further so-called economic \u201cliberalisation\u201d, i.e. counter-reforms against working people. The Greens will not be a barrier to this, as the last time they were in a national government, then with the SPD, they played a key role in the introduction of the neo-liberal \u201cAgenda 2010\u201d attacks on the unemployed and low paid.<\/p>\n

Immigration<\/strong><\/p>\n

An important part of the just over four years old AfD\u2019s success was opposition to migration, particularly fears of the possible consequences of hundreds of thousands of refugees coming into Germany in 2015. However the AfD also had the support of right wing nationalist layers, and gained some gained votes from those alienated from and embittered by a system which is seen as unjust and benefiting an elite. About 20% of the AfD\u2019s support came from people who did not vote in the last election.<\/p>\n

The AfD is still a new force, not yet consolidated but, if not successfully challenged, could give birth to one like the Austrian FP\u00d6 or Belgian FB. Significantly the AfD\u2019s neo-liberal economic policies were not prominent in its campaign. Politically it is moving further to the far right. On election night the AfD continued their offensive against the older parties with a leader warning Merkel\u2019s party that \u201cWe will hunt them. We will hunt Frau Merkel and we will get back our country and our people\u201d. While their success will encourage right nationalist and fascist elements, the AfD is also unstable and riven with divisions as witnessed by the departure of Frauke Petry, one of their former leaders, immediately after the election.<\/p>\n

Both traditional parties in the outgoing \u201cgrand coalition\u201d suffered severe losses. Their rejection saw their combined share of the vote drop to 53%, way down on the 77% they had in the early 1990s. Merkel\u2019s CDU\/CSU alliance crashed from 18.16m votes in 2013 to 15.31m despite the overall turnout rising from 71.5% to 76.2%. Meanwhile Merkel\u2019s outgoing coalition partner the \u201csocial democrats\u201d in the SPD saw their national vote fall from 11.25m to 9.53m, which gave the SPD its lowest percentage share, 20.5%, since the early 1930s.<\/p>\n

The SPD leaders reacted to this by refusing to continue in coalition with Merkel and hoping to restore their position by going into opposition.<\/p>\n

Part of the reason for this SPD shift is the continued support for DIE LINKE (Left Party) whose vote slightly increased from 3.75m to 4.29m, winning 5 more seats. Significantly DIE LINKE won support from around 430,000 former SPD voters, and gained amongst youth. However, while gaining throughout the west, at the same time it lost votes in eastern Germany and much of east Berlin, some 400,000 of its 2013 voters switched to the AfD.<\/p>\n

For years DIE LINKE has had a strong electoral base in the east, currently it leads one eastern federal state and is a junior coalition partner in another, but in these governments (and also the Berlin coalition it is in) it does not challenge and fight against capitalism, rather it seeks to administer it. While over 40% of the AfD\u2019s new votes came from the CDU and previous non-voters it was also assisted by disappointment with DIE LINKE in the east where, in this election, the AfD was the second strongest party.<\/p>\n

However DIE LINKE\u2019s slight strengthening in this election gives it another opportunity to play a key role in building movements against the growing low wage sector in Germany, increasing rents alongside resistance to the far right and whatever attacks the new government will introduce.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A somewhat boring election campaign that ignored many of the issues ended in a political earthquake<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":16210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[148,124],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"\nGermany: Election results in political earthquake - China Worker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2017\/10\/22\/16207\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Germany: Election results in political earthquake - 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