The Rise Of AfD, The Far-Right German Party, Cause For Concern
The AfD has secured more than 43 per cent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, winning 39 of 83 seats and coming three short of a majority. The result has intensified concerns over the far right's growing influence and placed Germany's traditional political firewall against extremist parties under mounting pressure.
The AfD's strong election performance has intensified concerns over the far right's growing political influence in Germany | X
Alarm bells are ringing across Europe as the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has come within striking distance of forming Germany’s first state government since the Second World War. The xenophobic, anti-immigrant, and pro-Russian AfD—which took shape in the wake of the 2010 eurozone debt and banking crises—is only three seats short of an outright majority in the legislature in the eastern province of Saxony-Anhalt after Sunday’s elections.
Such a massive showing, with more than 43 per cent of the vote share and twice its previous total, puts the populist party in a commanding bargaining position during negotiations for government formation with potential coalition partners.
Any eventual control of the reins of power by the AfD—which Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has classified as “right-wing extremist”—could realise the worst fears of large-scale deportation not just among recent immigrants from the Middle East in their hundreds of thousands.
Even ordinary German citizens risk a similar nightmare of eviction to their nation of origin under the AfD’s infamous policy of remigration, which the far-right elsewhere in the European Union has embraced.
AfD Gains Challenge Mainstream Parties
Sunday’s unprecedented verdict has turned out to be the worst outcome in the state for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s governing centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) coalition in Berlin since German reunification in 1990.
The party has lost nearly 20 per cent of the vote share it held in the 2021 ballot. An advantageous fallout from the current electoral arithmetic for the AfD is a growing challenge to the capacity of parties of the mainstream to forge a political consensus with a view to maintaining a time-tested formula of erecting a firewall of non-cooperation against fringe parties.
This Europe-wide strategy has proved especially effective in Germany since the Second World War to prevent the country from lurching to political extremes. But after Sunday’s result, any room for manoeuvre is extremely narrow as the AfD commands 39 seats in Saxony-Anhalt’s 83-member legislature.
Equally unlikely is the prospect of the rest of the parties in the House, most of them holding seats in single digits, sinking their differences to share power. On the other hand, some smaller parties have evidently shown little appetite to build a firewall against the AfD.
The latter’s largest tally of seats, especially following a record voter turnout, could potentially render its political isolation democratically damaging, if not disastrous, over the longer term.
Lesson For Centrist Parties
Herein is an enduring lesson for centrist political parties, both within Europe and outside, which have often veered further to the right of the political spectrum as an answer to the machinations of the extreme right.
Time after time, over the past two decades, the strategy has proved spectacularly ruinous for the middle ground. Chancellor Merz can appreciate the stakes involved here. The AfD’s leader in Saxony-Anhalt observed that Merz was a great campaigner for the far-right.
RECENT STORIES
-
-
-
-
-