Fears are growing about a possible victory of the far right in the upcoming elections in the eastern states of Germany.
Three states in eastern Germany, Thuringia, Sajonia y Brandenburg, They plan to elect new parliaments next monthand in all three the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is ahead in the polls. The protests have started.
In Thuringiawhich has a population of 2.1 million and where the famous Buchenwald concentration camp memorial is located, the fiercely anti-immigration AfD party is ahead with a 30% in the polls, ahead of the September 1 elections.
That figure is well ahead of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), who are currently in the polls with a 21%.
Fears grow of far-right rise
Given the possible victory of the far right in the regional elections, experts say there are reasons to fear for the future of the German government, especially the parties that make up the chancellor’s center-left bloc Olaf Scholz.
The security service has labeled Thuringia’s AfD party as right-wing extremist. The leader of the Thuringian AfD, Björn Höckewas convicted twice for using the banned Nazi motto “Alles für Deutschland” (Everything for Germany).
El lema “Everything for Thuringia” (Everything for Thuringia) appears in the current electoral manifesto, which worries many, including the director of the Memorial de Buchenwald, Jens-Christian Wagner.
Ideological objective: “relativize Nazism”
After a good result in the recent European elections, Wagner is even more worried about the success of the far right in Germany.
believe that relativizing Nazism is part of the party’s “ideological core”. Therefore, he fears for the survival of his Buchenwald monument if the AfD wins the elections, since the party could intervene in its management.
“The AfD claims that the work we do here, the culture of memoryit’s a call ‘blame culture‘. And according to that idea, I am the preacher of this culture of blame. “Of course, I would have to go,” Wagner says.
During World War II, the Nazis held some 277,000 people in the Buchenwald concentration camp, of whom some died. 56.000.
After American troops liberated the camp, residents of neighboring Weimar were forced to visit. The expression “we have not realized” is due to their reaction: they claimed that they had not realized.
This time, many give the alarm bell so that people realize. Wagner considers it his duty to warn against the extreme right and the trivialization of the Holocaust. This has made him one of the most important voices against the AfD.
Many are not impressed by the warnings
At an AfD rally in Neustadt an der Orla, attendees are unimpressed by Wagner’s warnings. At the AfD’s so-called Sommerfest, beer, barbecue and music alternate with speeches by AfD leaders.
“What has always bothered me is that they always say: ‘Germany started both world wars. That’s not true.”says a woman attending the rally.
“Yes, that was part of our history. But Germany didn’t just commit crimes, right?”
ADVERTISINGBjörn Höckeleader of the AfD in Thuringia, is one of the speakers at the rally. “The Germans need to have a normal patriotism again, a living patriotism. For eighty years we have been portrayed as some kind of outcasts in history. This can’t continue. We Germans must learn to be friends with ourselves again. And that is also the mission of the AfD.”
At the campaign rally, the belief is that the AfD will change this, although led by who was recently convicted of repeating Nazi slogans in his speeches.
“Hostile environment against minorities”
However noble the plan, the records tell a different story and analysts say that, specifically in Thuringiaradical far-right forces have created a hostile environment towards minoritiesincluding black people.
In 2023, the NGO Ezra, which helps victims of far-right, racist and anti-Semitic violence, documented 85 racist attacks in Thuringia, a figure slightly lower than the 88 attacks in 2022, which Ezra described as “a historical record of right-wing and racist violence“in the State.
ADVERTISING“In recent years, a far-right movement has formed in Thuringia, which has contributed to a notable ideological radicalization of its followers. Politically, the partyAlternative for Germany is the primary beneficiary,” Ezra and a consortium of organizations that track racism wrote in their annual report.
The AfD branch in Thuringia is particularmente radical and was placed under official surveillance by the national intelligence service four years ago as a group of “demonstrated right-wing extremism.”
Christian democracy strikes back in Saxony
With elections scheduled for September 1 and 22 respectively, the AfD is also quite powerful in the states of Sajonia and Brandenburg.
However, in Saxony, the CDU is doing better. They are currently tied with the AfD at around 30%. Despite the common perception of East Germany as a homogeneous region, significant political disparities exist between the states.
ADVERTISINGWhile the Socialist Left Party led by the state chief minister Bodo Ramelow has ruled Thuringia during the last ten years, Michael Kretschmer of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has been leading Saxony since 2017.
The more extreme right, the more difficult it is to hire qualified foreigners
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Some companies in eastern Germany have also said that they It is increasingly difficult to attract qualified foreign workers which they desperately need as the far-right AfD party gains more power.
They have said that they come to Alternative for Germany as a risk for the region as a place to do business or invest.
ADVERTISING“The lesson about German responsibility for Holocaust It weighs a lot, and it is a lesson that all Germans learn. Rightly so, most people think, but at the same time, some people say it’s time to put an end to this past. Especially in the AfD, where they want to get rid of what they see as a feeling of shame for their country“.
