Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Many European countries are worried over the unchecked influx of “immigrants”, mainly from the Middle East, which has changed demographics in several regions, a fact reflected in their emerging political dynamics. France is worried about the rise of far-right political parties. And, Germany is going the same way.
After the Second World War, which claimed millions of lives, including that of six million Jews, the utterance of very words like “Nazis”, the “Third Reich”, and “Adolf Hitler”—which marked Germany’s blotted history from 1932 to 1945—remained anathema for long.
Officially, they are still considered a strict no, no. But the latest election results in two eastern states have worried many Germans, and Europeans, that the largest economy in Europe might slide back into the bygone era.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the outcome of two regional elections, that saw big wins for the far-right political outfit Alternative for Germany (AfD) and losses for his coalition “bitter” and urged mainstream parties to form governments without “right-wing extremists,” the media reported on Monday.
After the weekend voting in Thuringia, the AfD emerged as the first far-right party to win a state legislature election in Germany since 1945. It also came a close second behind the conservatives in Saxony, projections late on Sunday showed. The party’s success in the eastern stronghold states comes around a year before federal elections scheduled for next year.
The AfD secured 32.8 of the votes in Thuringia, preliminary results showed, while the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came second, winning 23.6 percent. The upstart, left-wing party Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) was third with 15.8 percent of the vote.
Germany’s ruling coalition parties, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), the environmentalist Greens, and business-focused Free Democrats (FDP), received a drubbing at the polls.
The SPD managed to make it into the state legislature with a mere 6.1 percent of the vote, but the Greens and the FDP failed to meet the 5 percent threshold.
In Saxony, the CDU emerged victorious with 31.9 percent, while the AfD came a close second securing 30.6 percent of the vote. The BSW was third with 11.8 percent. The SPD and the Greens took a hit in Saxony, with the former winning just 7.3 percent and the latter 5.1 percent of the vote.
The results mean talks for government formation could be tough and protracted in both states.
Business associations are worried after the far-right AfD and the left-wing, anti-immigrant BSW, scored major gains in the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia.
Marcel Fratzscher, president of the German Institute for Economic Research, warned of significant economic and social consequences.
“The AfD in particular stands for an extremely neoliberal economic policy, for protectionism and isolation from Europe, for less immigration of skilled workers and less openness and diversity,” he said, adding the election results might lead to an exodus of firms and skilled workers from both states.
Ralf Wintergerst, who heads the digital association Bitkom, said the results are a “warning signal for the digital economy.”
“Germany must remain a country that stands for openness to the world and innovation,” he said, adding that neither AfD nor BSW represents these values.
Monika Schnitzer, Chair of the German Council of Economic Experts, warned that government formation will be difficult in Saxony and Thuringia and that it “could take weeks or even months.”
She said no political decisions could be taken without a stable democratic majority.
“But that means that companies, universities, cultural institutions, and citizens have no planning security.”
“Uncertainty is toxic, especially for the economy,” she noted, adding that “companies will delay investment plans or abandon them altogether, with negative effects on growth.”
AfD leader in Thuringia Bjorn Hocke told public broadcaster ARD that creating a governing coalition without his far-right party “would not be good for the state.”
“I can only warn against it… Whoever wants stability in Thuringia has to integrate the AfD.”
Despite coming in second to the AfD in Thuringia, members of Germany’s conservative CDU said they have a mandate to form the next government.
The CDU plans to lead coalition talks to form a “sensible government” in Thuringia. It has excluded building a coalition with the AfD.
Without an absolute majority, the CDU will be forced to look for coalition partners among the remaining parties in the state parliament, including the BSW, the Greens, and the SPD.
AfD leader Björn Höcke, the 52-year-old former history teacher, who was convicted of using Nazi slogans, said his party is willing to invite other political factions for talks about forming a coalition, despite other major parties dismissing this possibility ahead of the vote. He has repeatedly drawn criticism with his statements about Germany’s past, including calling a monument to Holocaust victims in Berlin a “monument of shame.”
In 2019, a German court ruled that Höcke can legally be described as a “fascist.”
The projected outcomes of the ballots in Thuringia and Saxony are a “slap in the face” for the three major parties in Germany’s national government.
The ruling coalition parties “must ask themselves, how they can stop their disastrous policies,” CDU Secretary-General Carsten Linnemann told public broadcaster ZDF.
Before being ousted by Scholz’s SPD with the backing of the Greens and the FDP in 2021, the conservative CDU was in power for 16 years under long-serving Chancellor Angela Merkel.