Entschuldigen Sie bitte im Voraus für mein schlechtes Deutsch. Ich interessiere mich für die politische Situation in Deutschland und die Wahrnehmung der Partei AfD. Gibt es Ihrer Meinung nach einen Zusammenhang zwischen der Ablehnung der AfD und der deutschen Vergangenheit, insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Entnazifizierung und die Sorge vor einem neuen Aufstieg populistischer Bewegungen, die an Hitler erinnern könnten?
Of course invoking the dark, shameful nazi history is a more potent tactic in Germany than pretty much any other place. Lots of voters are reflexively hesitant to vote for anyone or anything labeled "right-wing". Politically, Western Germany is an outlier in Europe in that the populist-nationalist right has systematically found less success than in Eastern Germany or any of the neighboring countries. The equivalent parties in France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Netherlands etc. have all had results in the 20-40% range and are decades-old, established parts of their countries' political spectrum. By contrast, the AfD had failed to get above 15%, and often times polled even below 10% in Western Germany until very recently, roughly 2022/23. Even with last Sunday's federal election result, the AfD is still polling weaker than its sister parties in other European countries.
It is notable that Eastern Germany is more in line with the European norm in this regard. They didn't have as many "denazification" efforts post-war, weren't subject to decades of teachings about the horrors of 1933-45 in school, at least not with the same intensity as in Western German schools, which often times reaches the level of an outright guilt trip. In the West, you got older generations of voters who have voted for the CDU or SPD for literally their entire life, you don't have these "ironclad, habitual voters of establishment parties" in the East where party loyalty is generally lower. And of course you have far less wealth and more decline in Eastern Germany, and thus fewer voters with "something to lose". The worse off people are, the less attached to the status quo they are and the more willing to vote for disruption.
Speaking of the older generations and habitual voters: the old establishment parties CDU and SPD have a massively aging base votership while the AfD is doing about similarly with voters aged 18 through 60 (20-25%), but only polls at around 10% with pensioners (age 70+). Demographics alone will lift up the AfD in the coming years, at the expense of the self-stylized parties of "the democratic middle".
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Feb 28 2025 07:56pm