The biggest nationwide election successes of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) are a shock for the political landscape in Germany. How could this happen, what can we do about it? Christine Buchholz, Ramsis Kilani, Shirin Jamila, from Sozialialismus von Untern, explain.
In Thuringia, the AfD grew by 9.4 percentage points compared to the last state elections and became the strongest party with 32.8 percent. This means that it can block all measures in Thuringia that require a two-thirds parliamentary majority. In Saxony, the AfD gained 3.1 percentage points and ended up just behind the CDU with 30.6 percent.
According to one post-election survey, social security, crime and immigration were the three most important issues in voting decisions in Saxony and Thuringia . The fear of social decline is not imaginary: Since the Corona crisis and the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the social gap between rich and poor has widened and the large losses in real wages due to inflation could only be partially compensated by strikes.
The AfD is a fundamentally fascist party that openly calls for the deportation of millions of our fellow citizens and colleagues of migrant origin (remigration). The election success in Thuringia is alarming because it is the regional association of Nazi leader Björn Höcke, who for years has focused on cooperation with fascists outside the AfD and on mobilization and violence on the streets. Jörg Urban’s bourgeois appearance with shirt and tie is a deception. He was also part of the fascist wing under Höcke, which was only officially dissolved, and does not differ in content, but only in tactical appearance.
These electoral successes strengthen the AfD’s self-confidence and will encourage many Nazis to carry out assaults and attacks on asylum homes and migrants.
Government policy helped the Nazis
The main reason for the rise of the AfD is the policy of the federal government, which consists of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP, which has invested billions in a gigantic military build-up while accepting the neglect of the social infrastructure. In view of these developments, the positioning of companies and entrepreneurs against the election of the AfD is hollow. Corporations which profit massively from low wages in East Germany and support attacks on social living conditions will not attempt to seriously undermine AfD support among workers.
The CDU is also partly responsible for the AfD’s political tailwind. After the attack in Solingen, after which a Syrian man was charged with killing three people, the CDU adopted the same AfD message. It called for an end to immigration, the mass deportation of refugees and for cuts to their welfare payments. The so-called ‘traffic light parties’ (i.e. the coalition parties; the SPD, The Free Democrat Party, and The Greens,) and the newly founded Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) quickly followed suit. This was only grist to the AfD’s mill.
Crisis of government and political instability
The rise of the BSW to the third strongest force can be explained primarily by the disappointment with the policies of Die Linker, the Left Party. In Saxony, 70 percent of voters said that their reason for voting for the BSW was “because I am disappointed with the Left.” It is estimated that around half of BSW voters had previously voted for the Left Party.
Disappointment over the policies of the traffic light government at the federal level, and disappointment with years of government policy from the Left in Thuringia helped the AfD to rise to become the only opposition. Thuringia recorded the highest voter turnout in 30 years, and in Saxony it also reached a record high of 73.5 percent. This development illustrates the frightening fact that many former non-voters now vote for the AfD.
The vote of the Thuringian government under Die Linke’s Bodo Ramelow fell from 31 percent in 2019 to 13.1 percent. It was clear as early as 2020, that this is what would happen. In Saxony too, Die LInke acts like a government in waiting.
Nationwide, Die LInke has been aiming for years to participate in government alongside the SPD and the Greens and has thus largely avoided taking negative positions on government policy.
Anti-capitalist alternative
In state government, the Left Party saw itself as administrator of the capitalist system. It implemented deportations and social cuts. The support of Die Linke’s Ramelow for German arms deliveries to the war in Ukraine and his support for German militarization, including the reintroduction of conscription, have contributed to the crumbling of the party’s support.
Thus, the BSW and the Afd were both were able to take advantage of the political vacuum. Even the Afd’s fascist ideology was no impediment to profiling itself as a supposed “peace party.” Despite its attempt, in the eastern German states, to link social crises with a kind of ethnic and racist anti-capitalism, its party program remains anti-worker and neoliberal.
To pull people away from the AfD Nazis, a consistent alternative and visible opposition to capitalism and its crises is needed. But the weakness of the left in presenting an alternative, has made room for right-wing forces.
The BSW will play an important role in talks for forming a government. The Left in Thuringia, learning nothing from its defeat, is considering tolerating or participating in a government with the right-wing conservative CDU and the BSW. Participation of the BSW in the government would simply copy the Left’s mistake. Sooner or later this would work against it, and lead through its racist position on migration, to the further strengthening of the AfD. A popular front strategy for a state government without the AfD as the “lesser evil” is a building foundation for Höcke’s Nazis over the next few years.
There is also a real danger that the defeat of the established parties will increase the pressure on the CDU to involve the AfD in the government or to tolerate it.
Antifascist mass mobilization
Effective resistance to the rise of the AfD Nazis can only be achieved through mobilization, strikes and union activities. The outrage over the AfD’s declared goal of mass deportations of millions led to mass demonstrations on the streets at the beginning of the year. The protests have since gone down.
There are also many people in Thuringia and Saxony who stand against the AfD. In Bautzen and Leipzig, demonstrators sided with Christopher Street Day LGBTQI visitors in the face of the Nazi threat, sending a clear message against the neo-Nazis.
In Jena-Lobeda, despite a heavy police presence, 2,000 anti-fascists blockaded an AfD election event in which its leader Höcke was appearing. In the migrant district of Berlin-Neukölln, counter-demonstrations forced the AfD to cancel its election party.
Antifascists will see these protests as a source of encouragement. They show that there is an active civil society which can challenge the far right. We need to build on these and ensure that there are more counter-mobilizations against AfD victory celebrations, meetings and public appearances.
In order to continue to achieve electoral success, the AfD seeks to hide its radical plans and fascist street terror. But its successes will also lead to attempts to tighten up its Nazi organizations through street mobilizations, to make them potentially a part of its political strength, which act independently of state power. The AfD’s solidarity with the Nazi terror in Chemnitz in 2018, where anti-immigrant demonstrations were ignited after a killing in the town, showed that the Afd is always prepared to use street violence for its ends.
The anti-fascist movement now needs to do everything it can to combat the AfD’s impending electoral victory in the upcoming state elections in Brandenburg at the end of September.
Antifascist alliances such as “Aufstehen gegen Rassismus” ( Standing Up Against Racism), a broad campaign against the AfD and other racists and facists) and “Widersetzen” (This means “resist” and “sit down” and is an alliance that organised the blockade against the party conference in Essen and other blockades) play an important role in expanding the anti-fascist struggle against the AfD throughout Germany. Expanding these organisations to new people, shocked by the election results and who want to fight racism and fascism, is now vital. We need also to develop stronger union links and develop a presence in workplaces to mobilize against the AfD.
The AfD’s mass deportation (remigration) plans threaten the existence of millions of neighbours, colleagues and activists with a migration background. This makes a determined resistance against the AfD Nazis even more important.
