The AfD has failed to win three run-offs for mayor in major cities in Germany’s west, despite other gains. Meanwhile, the German foreign minister is to visit Poland as tensions grow over Russia’s aggression.
Every time I hear about the AfD, its either “AfD support has gone through the roof, and everyone should be terrified!” Followed a few days later by “AfD loses…”.
Im starting to think the press isnt being totally honest with us, and is just posting click bait…
It’s partly because of how the German elections work. They are a multi-party system and have runoffs when no one wins more than 50% of the vote. The AfD might be the top polling party with only, say, 30%. They win the first round of elections because the opposition is split between many parties, but in the runoff, voters must choose between AfD and the second most popular party. Voters who don’t like the AfD can coalesce to elect the second party, regardless of how they voted in round 1.
A ton of AfD support is actually geographically split. Much of the support is in former East Germany, not in the west of the country. While their overall support has been rising steadily, this could have been a bellwether moment that showed that support rising to electoral success in the west. These results aren’t a mystery, they’re just not a simple as you would believe reading only headlines.
No one supports fascism like communists.
Nordrhein-Westfalen is the most western bit of west Germany, though. So not AFD territory at all.
Still good news, but not a shocker
As soon as I see “far-right” I reach for the album Revolver by The Beatles.
They’ll be a minority resistance party soon enough. Their state seats have grown significantly. This is likely just a piece of the pie and you have to look at the different elections and seats. They are getting closer and closer to 20% of the vote now.
On the one hand, I’d wish they would at least win one city, so that they can show they have absolutely nothing to add to the society. But on the other hand, I want them to fail hard every time.
FCK AFD
They already won several positions and majorities in some cities and broke all promises they made. Still growing in numbers.
We thought like this in the late 90’/early 00’s when the FN won a couple of cities in southern France. Their failures, nepotism, mismanagement, amateurism, stupidity and blatant authoritarianism got widely reported at first. Some media kept tabs for much longer but it faded out off mainstream media pretty quickly, except for the occasional scandal.
Worse, it legitimizes them and give them a platform under a veneer of electoral legitimacy.
Don’t let the far right win anything. You won’t “show everyone they’re unfit for power” because people don’t care. They just become familiar faces.
Love to see Elon-aligned fascists take the L
Good to hear. Maybe Germany isn’t joining the Putinist axis alongside Hungary and Slovakia after its next elections after all.
Oh dear, Russia RussiaaAAA RUSSSSIAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Do people like you see anything that isn’t caused by Russia? The “Putinist axis”, what a wild imagination. Hey on the plus side you’re never bored I guess.
