The Aftermath – One day after Germany’s "Landtagswahlen"
Until yesterday 5:59 pm I was mainly shocked by how many US-Americans seem to envisage Donald Trump as the only possible option for presidency, trusting him to solve all their problems. I was further convinced someone like him would never be able to gather such support in Germany. This feeling has not vanished, however, a minute later, when the first projections of three German federal state elections (“Landtagswahlen”) appeared on the TV screen in front of me, I was momentarily speechless, shocked and overwhelmed. I had troubles sorting through my emotions and actually realising what it was that I was feeling besides “this is not my country” and “do people even know about their own history?”.
For the past few months, the press had declared these elections to be the first real test for the government’s refugee policy – despite it being state elections and not federal elections. Usually topics such as local economy, education and investments into infrastructure are central points of the election campaigns. However, everyone in Germany expected the inhabitants of Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt and Baden-Wuerttemberg to show their feelings about federal politics this time rather than the classical state politics.
The “Alternative für Deutschland” (Alternative for Germany, AfD) has been rightly characterised as a right-wing party. Initially (in 2013) its members criticised the financial Euro-politics and called for exiting the common currency and financial union. By now it has turned into a nationalistic-conservative party mainly polarising the refugee crisis throughout the last months. This is the party, whose representatives have previously called for border police to use firearms to “defend” Germany’s borders against migrants.
Throughout the surveys prior to the election the AfD was achieving high single- and low two-figure percentages. But many (naively) believed those were palliated numbers, thinking that no one would really vote for them in the actual elections, arguing “people can say a lot but how they will be acting in the end, no one really knows”. However, the results speak volumes: In all state elections the AfD achieved high two-figure percentages (BW: 15,1%, RP: 12,6%, SA: 24,2%). In Saxony-Anhalt they even stretched to become the second-strongest party.
Surveys have shown that more than half of the AfD voters in all states claimed they did not vote for the political content of the AfD’s programme but rather to make a point to the established parties. The pattern of swing-voters actions also paints an interesting picture: In Saxony-Anhalt 17% of this year’s AfD voters had voted for the far left party “Die Linke” in the 2011 elections, their vote now going to the opposite end of the spectrum. Almost half of the AfD’s voters here were aged 44 or younger only 12% were university degree holders.
Despite the success of the AfD, one can argue the following: With Malu Dreyer (the Social-democratic Party’s candidate in Rhineland-Palatinate) and Winfrid Kretschmann (The Green’s candidate in Baden-Wuerttemberg) and their respective parties receiving the highest amounts of votes, the people confirmed additional turns in office for two prime ministers (“Ministerpräsidenten”) and their work, who have unprecedentedly supported Chancellor Merkel’s refugee policy.
Furthermore, another question remains: Will the AfD continue to rally support and successfully motivate people to vote for their “policy of protest”, once there are more sustainable solutions and order in the current administrative chaos regarding the refugee crisis? I personally hope that this would mean they would lose the very basis of their current relative success.
Two lessons can be learnt from this “Super-Sunday”: The established “Volksparteien” (peoples’ parties) need to take state elections more seriously. They need to set up an appropriate agenda, a programme that distinguishes them from other parties, and they need to realise that people are expecting their actions to be true to their words. They also need to understand the fact that people are concerned about the current state of their country and more importantly about its future. It has not been enough so far to reassure people with a simple “we can do it”. People want to know how. Words are one thing, actions are another. The latest results should have shaken the government to wake up and address the people’s demand for answers.
To close on a more positive note: Despite the current situation of insecurity, the people have chosen democracy as their tool – the voting participation has increased in all three states with 60-71% this year. My hope lies especially with the younger generation, Generation Y, which so often has complained about not really having a purpose in society on the one side, but also has been blamed for everything being handed to them on the other. Alongside everyone else, who is living in Germany and following the democratic faith, it is especially my generation’s duty to turn this country back into the country it has been for 90% of the time during the last 26 years.
Photo Credit: FlickR User Nadja Varga
