Germany: After the federal elections, resistance not adaptation!

Tuesday 11 March 2025, by Heinrich Neuhaus, J. H. Wassermann


The results of the German federal elections held on 23 February 2025 confirm that the country’s shift to the right can be halted. In parliament, the conservative CDU/CSU, with 208 seats, and the fascist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), with 152 seats, have achieved the strongest positions. Together, they represent a large majority of the 630 MPs. The AfD sees itself as the real winner, having more than doubled its share of the vote from 10.3% to 20.8%.

Fascism, a push to the right and warmongering

Driven by the AfD, the issue of ‘illegal’ immigration was at the centre of the election campaign. The inhuman racism aggressively propagated by the AfD led to a massive political shift to the right of the ‘democratic centre’. By contrast, the basic interests of the working class played only a secondary role for these parties - if at all.

The ‘change of era’ proclaimed by Chancellor Scholz (SPD) after the Russian invasion of Ukraine three years ago is also likely to win a majority in Germany. Rearmament and warmongering are widely accepted without being contradicted. Only the votes for the BSW (Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance) and Die Linke could be seen as a fundamental rejection of the militarisation of society.
The collapse of the SPD

The parties of the broken coalition, Ampel (red, orange, green like traffic lights) were the big losers in these elections. With 16.4% of the vote, the SPD recorded by far its worst result since 1949. The FDP (Liberals), which had triggered the early elections to the Bundestag, clearly failed to break the 5% barrier and is no longer represented in Parliament. The Greens were the least penalised. With 11.6%, they still achieved the second best result in their history.

The BSW, the right-wing splinter group from Die Linke, narrowly missed out on entering the Bundestag. On the other hand, Die Linke, which until a few weeks ago was also in danger of failing to break the 5% barrier, achieved its third best result to date with 8.8%. This is more than a glimmer of hope, especially as it has been able to win over tens of thousands of new members, most of them young. These two phenomena are due to the increased political polarisation caused by Merz’s coup in the Bundestag and the subsequent surge in anti-fascist protests by around 1.5 million people.
Mobilising society and defeating fascism

Merz, the CDU/CSU ‘chancellor candidate’, ruled out a coalition with the AfD on election night. His officially announced objective is to quickly form a coalition with the SPD. For the time being, however, the SPD is playing for time in order to weaken criticism within the party of an alliance with the conservative right led by Merz.

Unfortunately, the mass mobilisations against fascism that have taken place so far have not yet been enough to halt the slide to the right. The slogan ‘Together against fascism’ will only have lasting impact if it is filled with a hopeful social perspective.

Now is the time to ‘show the flag’, to get involved and to participate in an active and organised way. Transforming this momentum into ongoing political work in all areas of society - in neighbourhoods, workplaces, schools and universities, but also in trade unions and other social movements - will be the great challenge.

Extra-parliamentary resistance is now the order of the day, not the hope of a ‘firewall’ or a parliamentary ‘bulwark’ against the AfD. This extra-parliamentary movement should oppose racism, nationalism, fascism, warmongering and defend the social and ecological interests of the vast majority of the population.

L’Anticapitaliste 26 February 2025


Attached documentsgermany-after-the-federal-elections-resistance-not_a8886-2.pdf (PDF - 905.5 KiB)
Extraction PDF [->article8886]
germany-after-the-federal-elections-resistance-not_a8886.pdf (PDF - 905.5 KiB)
Extraction PDF [->article8886]

Heinrich Neuhaus

J. H. Wassermann


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