At the end of February Germans elected their new parliament. Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) won more than 20% of votes what gave it the second result. Moreover, in opinion polls conducted after the election their support continued to rise and currently AfD occupies the first place in survey and it is polling at 25%.
As part of the “Protecting European Values” project, co-funded by the European Commission, from the 30th March until 1st of April, KEW organized a study visit to Berlin. Our experts and fellows: Florian Lippert, Pola Cebulak and Tuomas Iso-Markku, assisted by Gabriela Rzepka had an opportunity to talk to the local scientists, journalists and experts about the impact the snap elections in Germany had on both domestic and European political landscape.
On the 30th of March we met with Silvio Duwe, independent political journalist who emphasized the role of right-wing media outlets in rising popularity of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and spreading their narrative, alongside colporting conspiracy theories and trying to pose “volkisch” rhetoric in a positive way. He also pointed out that the popularity of the AfD is closely bound to the either “softer” or “more radical” faces of the particular members of the party, making the program of the party easier to adjust to specific demands of the different regions in Germany. Our interlocutor noticed that the cooperation between AfD and CDU/ CSU is most likely on the state or local level, as the narrative behind it being unfair to exclude the will of so many people voting for the far-right.
On the 31st March we had three meetings. In the morning we met with Klaus Segbers, Professor for International Relations and East European Studies at Free University Berlin. He explained the support for the AfD as the result of frustration and feeling of being ignored, especially in the Eastern parts of Germany. He pointed out that it was mostly domestic issues that drove people to vote for radical right, the international concerns, like war in Ukraine being a second-rank issue. He also pointed out that the grand political coalition will be rather unstable what is confirmed by difficult negotiations between social democrats and CDU/CSU concerning the establishment of a new government. Mr Segbers also made an assumption AfD will maintain the status of the only „genuine” Volksparty in the future in Germany.
Maik Fielitz and Ann-Kathrin Benner from the Jena Institute for Democracy and Civil Society gave us an overview of the steady radicalization of the AfD and their support in Eastern parts of Germany. Mr Fielitz pointed out that politicians- especially from the mainstream- during the electoral campaign did not use so much social media and AI generated content as was expected. Our guest noticed that the far-right has been organising the social life of Eastern Germany for quite some time now, making democratic parties disappear in such conditions.
The last meeting of the day was with Wolfgang Heuer, Privatdozent at Otto-Suhr-Institute for Political Science at Free University Berlin. Mr Heuer commented the lack of possibility of cooperation between the CDU/CSU and AfD as an only option for the first one not to lose voters. He emphasised that there is a strong fear of the neonazis on the national level. Moreover, in the Bundestag we could see a sort of “firewall” building against the rule of AfD. The expert underlined that currently in Germany there is no political will to engage in the further internal integration of the EU, Germans focusing mostly on domestic affairs.
On the last day of our visit we met with Volker Prittwitz, political theorist, professor at Free University Berlin. Our guest argued that AfD voters want a less complexity in the politics, meaning a strong state without an entrenchement in civil society. Mr Prittwitz stressed that the results of the elections being favourable to AfD showed the CDU that they need to take the topics erected by the far-right (especially migration) seriously. Regarding the whole topic of our project, Mr Prittwitz underlined that we should not consider values as strictly European but more likely as the universal ones.
Our last interlocutor was Susan Steward, researcher at German Institute of International and Security Affairs (SWP). According to her, a robust Russian interference in the last snap elections in Germany wasn’t detected, yet one must always stay aware because the hybrid threats are being launched all the time. Russia capitalises on the basis of „assets” that it already gained in Germany, with no need to further the influence to stay relevant. Our interlocutor argued that the public communication about the consequences of sactions against Russia for the German economy wasn’t prepared well enough. In result, many Germans see the rising prices and increase of the defence spending as a solely Ukrainian problem, namely casued by the foreign and distant war, not as a European (meaning also German, their own) one. The majority of Germans support Ukraine in many ways, however the low-key connections with Russian politics and economy remain untouched.
