{"id":246545,"date":"2025-02-25T16:56:06","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T16:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/in-former-east-germany-the-hard-right-afd-party-finds-most-of-its-support\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T16:56:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T16:56:06","slug":"in-former-east-germany-the-hard-right-afd-party-finds-most-of-its-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/in-former-east-germany-the-hard-right-afd-party-finds-most-of-its-support\/","title":{"rendered":"In Former East Germany, the Hard-Right AfD Party Finds Most of Its Support"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/25\/world\/germany-divide-promo\/germany-divide-promo-facebookJumbo.png?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"In Former East Germany, the Hard-Right AfD Party Finds Most of Its Support\" title=\"In Former East Germany, the Hard-Right AfD Party Finds Most of Its Support\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Three and a half decades after reunification, a line runs through Germany where the Iron Curtain once stood. Instead of barbed wires and dogs, that line now divides Germans by measures like income and unemployment \u2014 and increasingly by the willingness to vote for extremist parties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If East Germany were still its own country, the hard-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which has been linked to neo-Nazis and is being monitored by domestic intelligence, would have scored a convincing win <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/24\/world\/europe\/takeaways-germany-election.html\" title=\"\">in the elections on Sunday<\/a>, with nearly one in three voters there casting ballots for it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Only two of 48 voting districts outside of Berlin in the former East Germany were not won by the AfD. In a handful of districts in the east, the AfD got nearly 50 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That division \u2014 and the sense that Germans still to some degree inhabit two separate worlds, east and west \u2014 has become a persistent feature of Germans\u2019 voting habits. It is one that was manifest not only on Sunday but also when Germans voted in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/10\/world\/europe\/european-parliament-elections-key-takeaways.html\" title=\"\">elections for the European Parliament<\/a> last June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The divide, analysts say, reflects not only a failure to fully integrate the east, but also its unique problems and culture, shaped by decades of Communist rule during the Cold War and close alignment with Moscow and the former Soviet bloc.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOne important aspect of this is that many East Germans have never really connected emotionally or mentally with West German democracy,\u201d said Benjamin H\u00f6hne, a political scientist who studies eastern Germany.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On top of that, many of the metrics where eastern Germany still lags behind the western part are the very factors that make voters more likely to vote for the far right, Mr. H\u00f6hne said. The AfD also has close links to Moscow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Sunday, only 42 percent of Germans in the east voted for traditional West German parties, including the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats, which look likely to form a governing coalition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The rest voted either for the AfD, Die Linke, which itself is a successor of the old Socialist Party that ran the East for nearly four decades, and a small splinter party run by a former Communist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe old western parties were never that well established in East Germany,\u201d said Matthias Quent, a sociologist professor who has spent years studying the extreme right.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the former East, the AfD is increasingly visible. Many members are active in civil society \u2014 including several mayors \u2014 which means even people who do not vote for the party come in regular contact with it, Professor Quent said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEast Germany simply works differently and has not become more like the rest of the country either,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Given that East Germans were not allowed to vote freely for four decades before 1990, it is perhaps unsurprising that they do not feel the same attachment to western parties, experts say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On top of that, parties called the Christian Democrats, Social Democrats or Liberal Democrats \u2014 like those in the West \u2014 existed in the old East Germany, but were not actual opposition parties because they were controlled by the communist regime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It\u2019s a narrative that allows the AfD to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/23\/world\/europe\/germany-election-firewall-afd.html\" title=\"\">claim that it is the only real alternative<\/a> to mainstream politics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2025\/02\/23\/world\/europe\/germany-election-results-analysis.html\" title=\"\">result on Sunday<\/a> was not a surprise. The vote tally in the east mirrored <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/02\/world\/europe\/east-germany-elections-afd.html\" title=\"\">state elections<\/a> in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/22\/world\/europe\/germany-election-results-brandenburg-scholz.html\" title=\"\">three eastern races<\/a> in September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Thuringia, where Bj\u00f6rn H\u00f6cke, who has been fined by a court for recycling Nazi language, runs the party, 33 percent voted for the AfD in September. The mainstream Christian Democrats came in a distant second place with about 24 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">However, when compared to neighboring countries, the more unusual part of the country is maybe the west, not the east.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBy European standards, the party landscape in eastern Germany is more the norm, while western Germany, with its still relatively stable mainstream parties, is actually the exception,\u201d Professor H\u00f6hne said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is a problem not lost on mainstream politicians in Berlin, who see their support eroding in the east and worry that it could be a harbinger of what\u2019s to come for the whole of Germany.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/23\/world\/europe\/friedrich-merz-germany-chancellor.html\" title=\"\">Friedrich Merz, the presumptive future chancellor<\/a> of a center-right government, acknowledged the severity of the lopsidedness of German voting habits when he spoke to reporters a day after winning the national vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe are extremely concerned about what is happening in the east,\u201d Mr. Merz said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To bolster the fortunes of mainstream parties, Mr. Merz plans to address problems both with irregular migration, which has been the AfD\u2019s favorite issue, and with economics, as Germany <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2025\/02\/21\/world\/europe\/germany-economy-election.html\" title=\"\">struggles to improve competitiveness<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe have to work together to solve the problems in Germany to gradually deprive this party of its fertile ground,\u201d he said of the AfD.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Merz would be the first Christian Democratic chancellor since Angela Merkel, who was the first and so far only chancellor raised in East Germany.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And while the two parts of the country have become more integrated, high-level politics have not. Of the 17 government ministers in the departing cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, two were born in East Germany \u2014 and there might be even fewer in Mr. Merz\u2019s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/25\/world\/europe\/germany-election-east-west-iron-curtain.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three and a half decades after reunification, a line runs through Germany where the Iron Curtain once stood. Instead of barbed wires and dogs, that line now divides Germans by measures like income and unemployment \u2014 and increasingly by the willingness to vote for extremist parties. If East Germany were still its own country, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/25\/world\/germany-divide-promo\/germany-divide-promo-facebookJumbo.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[50111,163424,169018,191275,863,191276,67,2302,179363,4791,186009,179362,163420,176990,1697,137131,98976,176989,864],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246547,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246545\/revisions\/246547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}