By AFP
August 28, 2024
The city of Jena in eastern Germany is a world-renowned centre of expertise in the field of optics - Copyright AFP/File Tobias SCHWARZ
Florian CAZERES
With its shiny new housing estates, scores of building sites and bustling city centre, Jena represents the fresh face of the former East Germany.
“The former East German states now play a full part… in the success and strength of our economy,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a meeting in the city this week.
Economic problems and a general sense of being disadvantaged are often cited as the reasons why support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is particularly high in the once-communist East Germany.
The AfD emerged as the biggest party in eastern Germany in June’s European Union elections and also looks set to make big gains at regional polls in Thuringia and Saxony on Sunday.
But in fact the former East German states have racked up a slew of positive economic data in recent years, with investment on the rise and unemployment falling.
“For the past 10 years, growth in (eastern Germany) has been higher than the national average,” Axel Lindner, a researcher at the IWH Halle economic institute, told AFP.
As the economic centre of Thuringia, Jena is a world-renowned centre of expertise in the field of optics, with a thriving start-up scene and renowned universities.
In neighbouring Saxony, the city of Dresden has become a hub for the semiconductor industry.
– ‘Top performers’ –
Eastern Germany’s GDP will grow by 1.1 percent this year, almost three times the national average, according to the IFO economic institute, while unemployment fell from 11.6 percent in 2013 to 7.8 percent in 2023.
While the German economy as a whole has stagnated over the past 12 months, partly due to its reliance on exports, the economy in the east of the country, dominated by family businesses and services, has held up well.
Eastern Germany has also been chosen as the location for several large industrial projects, such as Tesla’s electric car plant in Brandenburg, the state that surrounds Berlin.
Partly thanks to the factory, Brandenburg was able to rack up growth of 2.1 percent last year while the country as a whole went into recession.
“Something has happened that we didn’t expect: we are the top performers,” said Carsten Schneider, the government’s commissioner for East German affairs.
Consumer purchasing power has also risen faster in the east than in the west, thanks to recent increases in pension payments and the minimum wage.
Incomes and wealth are still lower in the east, but the gap is narrowing — wages in eastern Germany were around 91 percent of those in the west in 2022, compared with 80 percent in 2015.
However, the picture is different in the region’s rural areas, where the mass exodus of workers and an ageing population and have led to a stubborn sense of pessimism.
– Population decline –
According to a study by the IW economic research institute in Cologne, the shrinking population in rural areas could be the root cause of the region’s high number of protest voters.
“There is a correlation between population decline and pessimism among residents” fuelled by a sense of deprivation and the “disappearance of public services”, Matthias Diermeier, an author of the study, told AFP.
Ironically, the reduction in immigration called for by the AfD could exacerbate this problem and harm the economy, worsening a growing shortage of skilled workers.
By 2030, the working-age population in the eastern regions of Germany is set to fall by 800,000, according to government estimates.
In the run-up to the elections in Saxony and Thuringia, many business leaders have warned the far right could threaten economic development, stressing the importance of diversity and openness.
It was in Jena that the Prussian army was defeated by Napoleon in 1806, sparking the beginnings of German nationalism.
But the AfD scored only 15 percent of the vote in the city in June’s European elections, well below the rest of eastern Germany.
“When you have money in your pocket, you’re automatically less likely to vote for the extremes,” Thomas Nitzsche, the mayor of Jena, told AFP.
In Germany’s industrial east, old traumas boost far right
By AFP
August 28, 2024
'People simply don't want to be deceived anymore,' said Jonas Duenzel, an AfD candidate in the Saxony election - Copyright AFP/File Yuichi YAMAZAKI
Isabelle LE PAGE
In the relatively well-off city of Zwickau, in Germany’s former communist east, economic uncertainty and a turbulent history have combined to drive support for the far right ahead of a key regional election.
“People are afraid of losing everything they’ve built up again over the years,” said Zwickau’s mayor, Constance Arndt.
To understand why “the mood is so bad” ahead of Sunday’s elections in the state of Saxony, one has to “perhaps delve into the past”, she told AFP.
Zwickau residents have “achieved a certain level of prosperity” after a period of painful decline in the wake of German reunification in 1990, she said.
The city owes its revival in part to its status as a hub for automotive manufacturing, with Volkswagen a major employer in the area.
But recent crises, from the coronavirus pandemic to the Ukraine war and high inflation, have triggered a renewed “fear of losing”, said Arndt, 47, from her office overlooking a picturesque market square.
As a result, some are voting for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “out of protest”, the independent mayor in the city of some 90,000 people added.
At the start of the year, thousands of people in Zwickau nevertheless rallied against the far right following revelations that some members of the anti-Islam, anti-immigrant AfD had joined a meeting that discussed plans for mass deportations of asylum seekers.
The rallies, which also took place across Germany, were at the time seen as a rare mobilisation of the so-called silent majority against right-wing extremism.
But it didn’t last long.
In early June, the AfD won a municipal election to become the largest group on Zwickau’s district council.
Although the AfD fell short of a majority, council discussions are expected to become more challenging, the mayor predicted, particularly regarding cultural funding.
– Swastikas –
On a sweltering day in August, social worker Joerg Banitz pointed out several swastika tags and inscriptions of “NS-Zone”, a reference to the Nazi era, daubed onto walls outside the city centre.
“We see that a lot,” said the Zwickau native, who was one of the organisers of the demonstrations against the far right early this year.
Banitz believes the AfD’s rise is fuelled by more than just protest votes.
The party’s “radical language, its way of thinking” now has “an acceptance” among the public, he said, helped by the fact that conservatives from the centre-right CDU party in Saxony have adopted some of their populist stances.
“I think most of the people who vote for the AfD want exactly what the programme says,” he added.
The AfD has found fertile ground in a city with an active right-wing extremist scene, Banitz said. It was in Zwickau that the three members of the NSU neo-Nazi cell, who murdered nine people of immigrant origin between 2000 and 2007, hid from the police for years.
Wolfgang Wetzel, a Zwickau city councillor from the Green party, said many locals felt overwhelmed in an increasingly complex world.
And in a region that has lived through two consecutive authoritarian regimes, Nazism and then communist East Germany, there is a resurgence of “nostalgia for the simplicity of dictatorship, where you don’t have to make decisions,” which benefits the far right, Wetzel said.
– ‘Uncertainty’ –
But the AfD rejects those interpretations.
“I think people simply don’t want to be deceived anymore,” said Jonas Duenzel, a candidate for the AfD in the Saxony election, where polls suggest the party is neck-and-neck with the CDU.
The 30-year-old former insurance salesman took aim at the conservatives who he said had co-opted AfD calls for tougher border controls and asylum policies, but done nothing to make that happen during their five years in power.
If people vote for the AfD, “it’s not because they’re turning away from democracy”, as Saxony prime minister Michael Kretschmer from the CDU has claimed, but because “they have a problem with Mr Kretschmer”, he said.
The increased populist sentiment has worried Volkswagen, which produces all-electric vehicles at a large plant in Zwickau. The AfD regularly rails against the push towards zero-emissions driving, dismissing it as “a fairy tale”.
“The discussions about the future of electric mobility create uncertainty” for the roughly 10,000 workers at the Zwickau plant, said Christian Sommer, VW’s head of corporate communications in Saxony.
“And there is indeed a fear,” he told AFP, “that these jobs could be threatened if a right-wing populist-conservative government were to emerge from the elections.”
Far right poised for gains at key German regional polls
By AFP
August 28, 2024
The far-right AfD is unlikely to come to power, but the result would still be humiliating for Scholz's Social Democrats - Copyright JIJI Press/AFP STR
Femke COLBORNE
Voters in two former East German states will go to the polls Sunday in what could be a bad night for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government, with the far-right AfD expected to make big gains.
The elections in Thuringia and Saxony come just a week after three people were stabbed to death in the western city of Solingen, allegedly by a Syrian asylum seeker, in an attack that has shocked Germany and fuelled a bitter debate about immigration.
Opinion polls have the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the biggest party in Thuringia on around 30 percent, while in Saxony it is running neck-and-neck for first place with the conservative CDU.
The AfD is unlikely to come to power in either state, even if it wins, as other parties have ruled out collaborating with it to form a majority.
But the result would still be a humiliating slapdown for Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) and the other parties in his governing coalition, the Greens and the liberal FDP, as they look ahead to Germany’s national election next year.
In both states, Scholz’s SPD is polling at around six percent.
A third former East German state, Brandenburg, is also due to hold an election later in September, with the AfD also leading there on around 24 percent.
The picture in each state is slightly different but “in any case, it is clear that the AfD will unite a very strong number of votes behind it”, Marianne Kneuer, a professor of politics at the Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden), told AFP.
Besides causing a headache for Scholz’s coalition, the election could also have international implications if it gives a boost to parties that oppose continued support for Ukraine.
– ‘Dissatisfied protest voters’ –
Created in 2013 as an anti-euro group before morphing into an anti-immigration party, the AfD has enjoyed a resurgence over the past 12 months as Germany struggles with a rise in migration and a stumbling economy.
The AfD has also capitalised on dissatisfaction with the three-way coalition government in Berlin that has been plagued by disagreements and stalemate, most recently a protracted dispute over the 2025 budget.
In June’s EU Parliament elections, the party scored a record 15.9 percent overall and did especially well in eastern Germany, where it emerged as the biggest force.
The AfD has also notched up several local successes including its first city mayor, but a victory in Thuringia or Saxony on Sunday would be the first time it has won a state election.
The AfD is especially strong in the former communist East Germany partly “because it has a core of voters there who can identify with its nationalist and authoritarian positions”, according to Kneuer.
But the party’s popularity there can also be put down to “a large proportion of dissatisfied protest voters who turn to the AFD because they don’t want to vote for any other party”, she said.
Saxony is the most populous former East German state, with around four million inhabitants and several large cities including Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz.
Thuringia, which has a population of around two million and whose biggest city is Erfurt, is the only state to currently have a leader, Bodo Ramelow, from the far-left Die Linke party.
– ‘The right party’ –
After struggling economically for years after reunification, eastern Germany has recently seen higher growth than western Germany and wage increases have also been higher.
But “despite these positive economic developments, differences and injustices persist (between east and west)”, according to Carsten Schneider, the government’s commissioner for East German affairs.
Stefan Angelov, 35, a security guard from Jena, the second-largest city in Thuringia, said the AfD was “the right party” to vote for, “especially after the attack in Solingen”.
“Open borders, anyone can come in… with who-knows-what in their hands,” said Angelov, who is originally from Bulgaria but has been living in Jena for 10 years.
BSW, a new party formed by popular left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht after she defected from the Die Linke, is also polling well in all three states.
BSW has enjoyed a swell of support for its stance against weapons deliveries to Ukraine and won six percent in June’s EU elections.
“It is possible that BSW could become an important factor in forming a coalition in Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony,” Kneuer said.
Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/far-right-poised-for-gains-at-key-german-regional-polls/article#ixzz8kHR2w2E9
By AFP
August 28, 2024
'People simply don't want to be deceived anymore,' said Jonas Duenzel, an AfD candidate in the Saxony election - Copyright AFP/File Yuichi YAMAZAKI
Isabelle LE PAGE
In the relatively well-off city of Zwickau, in Germany’s former communist east, economic uncertainty and a turbulent history have combined to drive support for the far right ahead of a key regional election.
“People are afraid of losing everything they’ve built up again over the years,” said Zwickau’s mayor, Constance Arndt.
To understand why “the mood is so bad” ahead of Sunday’s elections in the state of Saxony, one has to “perhaps delve into the past”, she told AFP.
Zwickau residents have “achieved a certain level of prosperity” after a period of painful decline in the wake of German reunification in 1990, she said.
The city owes its revival in part to its status as a hub for automotive manufacturing, with Volkswagen a major employer in the area.
But recent crises, from the coronavirus pandemic to the Ukraine war and high inflation, have triggered a renewed “fear of losing”, said Arndt, 47, from her office overlooking a picturesque market square.
As a result, some are voting for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “out of protest”, the independent mayor in the city of some 90,000 people added.
At the start of the year, thousands of people in Zwickau nevertheless rallied against the far right following revelations that some members of the anti-Islam, anti-immigrant AfD had joined a meeting that discussed plans for mass deportations of asylum seekers.
The rallies, which also took place across Germany, were at the time seen as a rare mobilisation of the so-called silent majority against right-wing extremism.
But it didn’t last long.
In early June, the AfD won a municipal election to become the largest group on Zwickau’s district council.
Although the AfD fell short of a majority, council discussions are expected to become more challenging, the mayor predicted, particularly regarding cultural funding.
– Swastikas –
On a sweltering day in August, social worker Joerg Banitz pointed out several swastika tags and inscriptions of “NS-Zone”, a reference to the Nazi era, daubed onto walls outside the city centre.
“We see that a lot,” said the Zwickau native, who was one of the organisers of the demonstrations against the far right early this year.
Banitz believes the AfD’s rise is fuelled by more than just protest votes.
The party’s “radical language, its way of thinking” now has “an acceptance” among the public, he said, helped by the fact that conservatives from the centre-right CDU party in Saxony have adopted some of their populist stances.
“I think most of the people who vote for the AfD want exactly what the programme says,” he added.
The AfD has found fertile ground in a city with an active right-wing extremist scene, Banitz said. It was in Zwickau that the three members of the NSU neo-Nazi cell, who murdered nine people of immigrant origin between 2000 and 2007, hid from the police for years.
Wolfgang Wetzel, a Zwickau city councillor from the Green party, said many locals felt overwhelmed in an increasingly complex world.
And in a region that has lived through two consecutive authoritarian regimes, Nazism and then communist East Germany, there is a resurgence of “nostalgia for the simplicity of dictatorship, where you don’t have to make decisions,” which benefits the far right, Wetzel said.
– ‘Uncertainty’ –
But the AfD rejects those interpretations.
“I think people simply don’t want to be deceived anymore,” said Jonas Duenzel, a candidate for the AfD in the Saxony election, where polls suggest the party is neck-and-neck with the CDU.
The 30-year-old former insurance salesman took aim at the conservatives who he said had co-opted AfD calls for tougher border controls and asylum policies, but done nothing to make that happen during their five years in power.
If people vote for the AfD, “it’s not because they’re turning away from democracy”, as Saxony prime minister Michael Kretschmer from the CDU has claimed, but because “they have a problem with Mr Kretschmer”, he said.
The increased populist sentiment has worried Volkswagen, which produces all-electric vehicles at a large plant in Zwickau. The AfD regularly rails against the push towards zero-emissions driving, dismissing it as “a fairy tale”.
“The discussions about the future of electric mobility create uncertainty” for the roughly 10,000 workers at the Zwickau plant, said Christian Sommer, VW’s head of corporate communications in Saxony.
“And there is indeed a fear,” he told AFP, “that these jobs could be threatened if a right-wing populist-conservative government were to emerge from the elections.”
Far right poised for gains at key German regional polls
By AFP
August 28, 2024
The far-right AfD is unlikely to come to power, but the result would still be humiliating for Scholz's Social Democrats - Copyright JIJI Press/AFP STR
Femke COLBORNE
Voters in two former East German states will go to the polls Sunday in what could be a bad night for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government, with the far-right AfD expected to make big gains.
The elections in Thuringia and Saxony come just a week after three people were stabbed to death in the western city of Solingen, allegedly by a Syrian asylum seeker, in an attack that has shocked Germany and fuelled a bitter debate about immigration.
Opinion polls have the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the biggest party in Thuringia on around 30 percent, while in Saxony it is running neck-and-neck for first place with the conservative CDU.
The AfD is unlikely to come to power in either state, even if it wins, as other parties have ruled out collaborating with it to form a majority.
But the result would still be a humiliating slapdown for Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) and the other parties in his governing coalition, the Greens and the liberal FDP, as they look ahead to Germany’s national election next year.
In both states, Scholz’s SPD is polling at around six percent.
A third former East German state, Brandenburg, is also due to hold an election later in September, with the AfD also leading there on around 24 percent.
The picture in each state is slightly different but “in any case, it is clear that the AfD will unite a very strong number of votes behind it”, Marianne Kneuer, a professor of politics at the Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden), told AFP.
Besides causing a headache for Scholz’s coalition, the election could also have international implications if it gives a boost to parties that oppose continued support for Ukraine.
– ‘Dissatisfied protest voters’ –
Created in 2013 as an anti-euro group before morphing into an anti-immigration party, the AfD has enjoyed a resurgence over the past 12 months as Germany struggles with a rise in migration and a stumbling economy.
The AfD has also capitalised on dissatisfaction with the three-way coalition government in Berlin that has been plagued by disagreements and stalemate, most recently a protracted dispute over the 2025 budget.
In June’s EU Parliament elections, the party scored a record 15.9 percent overall and did especially well in eastern Germany, where it emerged as the biggest force.
The AfD has also notched up several local successes including its first city mayor, but a victory in Thuringia or Saxony on Sunday would be the first time it has won a state election.
The AfD is especially strong in the former communist East Germany partly “because it has a core of voters there who can identify with its nationalist and authoritarian positions”, according to Kneuer.
But the party’s popularity there can also be put down to “a large proportion of dissatisfied protest voters who turn to the AFD because they don’t want to vote for any other party”, she said.
Saxony is the most populous former East German state, with around four million inhabitants and several large cities including Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz.
Thuringia, which has a population of around two million and whose biggest city is Erfurt, is the only state to currently have a leader, Bodo Ramelow, from the far-left Die Linke party.
– ‘The right party’ –
After struggling economically for years after reunification, eastern Germany has recently seen higher growth than western Germany and wage increases have also been higher.
But “despite these positive economic developments, differences and injustices persist (between east and west)”, according to Carsten Schneider, the government’s commissioner for East German affairs.
Stefan Angelov, 35, a security guard from Jena, the second-largest city in Thuringia, said the AfD was “the right party” to vote for, “especially after the attack in Solingen”.
“Open borders, anyone can come in… with who-knows-what in their hands,” said Angelov, who is originally from Bulgaria but has been living in Jena for 10 years.
BSW, a new party formed by popular left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht after she defected from the Die Linke, is also polling well in all three states.
BSW has enjoyed a swell of support for its stance against weapons deliveries to Ukraine and won six percent in June’s EU elections.
“It is possible that BSW could become an important factor in forming a coalition in Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony,” Kneuer said.
Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/far-right-poised-for-gains-at-key-german-regional-polls/article#ixzz8kHR2w2E9
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