Posted on 06/20/2023 4:36:34 AM PDT by FarCenter
For extremely obvious reasons, it’s always a little unsettling when the far-right is having a good moment in German politics.
That’s exactly what’s happening now as the avowedly anti-immigrant and Euroskeptic Alternative for Deutschland Party, known as AfD, is now neck-and-neck with the Social Democrats, the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The AfD, which is polling at 19% (to the SPD’s 20%), is closing in on becoming the country’s second most popular political faction. The Christian Democratic Union Party still holds the top spot at 27%.
What explains AfD’s recent upward trajectory, and what does it tell us about the state of German politics 18 months after former Chancellor Angela Merkel left the stage, ending 16 years at the helm?
AfD’s raison d'être. Founded in 2013, the group’s main shtick at the time was agitating against the European Union’s planned bailout of indebted countries after the eurozone crisis. The founders wanted to ditch the single market and bring back the German Deutschmark. (Spoiler: It didn’t happen.)
But when millions of refugees starting streaming into Germany in 2015 in the aftermath of the Syrian civil war, the AfD morphed into an anti-immigrant – and anti-Islam – party and has since called for the German constitution to gut the right to seek asylum.
Evoking outrage has been par for the course for AfD party stalwarts, and in some instances, it’s perhaps the entire point. Consider that the AfD leader of the central state of Thuringia has called for Holocaust memorials to be taken down, while former party leader Frauke Petry once said that refugees should be prevented from crossing into Germany … by using armed force.
It’s in former East Germany – where grievances about economic inequality and second-class citizenship have festered since the end of the Cold War – that AfD’s populist, ethnocentric messaging has gained the most traction.
Still, when Germans last went to the polls in Sept. 2021, AfD was polling at around 10% on average, and the far-right group is now reaping nearly double that at 19%, having seen a four-point bump over the past 12 weeks alone.
“This is not a blip, and not some sort of short-term thing,” says Jan Techau, Germany director at Eurasia Group and former speechwriter to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. “We've seen buildup over some time, and now it seems like AfD is solidifying.”
So what explains this seismic shift?
Because the end of the American occupation is finally imaginable, if not imminent, and because Germany, at the end of the day, DOES have a national interest that has no expression under the current political system.
With what the globalist are trying to do? This can’t be a serious question
Because importing hundreds of thousands of militant Muslims is a really bad idea?
Because the insanity of the Green agenda is showing itself?
Because the left is going all nazi again and they will not let the left force people onto train cars again just to be gassed at a concentration camp.
Exactly, they’re not ‘far right’. Anytime I hear that it’s just leftists reporting. They’re normal people who don’t like the invasion.
The opening line by the writer (whose resume includes the NYT) is a clever game. Except it is not clever. It repeats subtley the assertion that the National Socialists of Germany were "far-right." That has been the Socialists' word game for decades since WWII. The National Socialists were -- what's in the name? -- socialists, officially "anti-capitalist," though today's anti-capitalists want us to not notice that. Because "far-right."
Additionally, AfD is nor "far-right," so Ms. NYT in a single sentence or two libels them. Cleverly.
She misses the far-right by far. One reads "Germany's Largest Right-Wing Extremist Group is Turkish, not German."
Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17486/germany-extremists-grey-wolves
Additionally, of GZero itself, you might notice that the article embedded in a long page is a small part of their game. Try going to the end of the page, as see how they use HTML to keep you from getting to an "About" page telling of the company.
One reads of GZero elsewhere: "It was created in 2017 as a subsidiary of Eurasia Group, the world's leading political risk analysis firm."
Source: https://www.concordia.net/organization/gzeromedia/
And of GZero's "big guy," Ian Bremmer, one reads much via the Wiki article, inlcuding his nice ties with PBS and beyond. Bremmer opposes Turmp, one finds, among other things.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Bremmer
GZero's posted address is a WeWork space in New York City.
Info: https://www.wework.com/buildings/149-5th-avenue--new-york-city--NY
Among their podcasts --- "GZERO Media and Citi Global Wealth Investments are pleased to present “Living Beyond Borders,” a special-edition podcast series...."
Source: https://www.gzeromedia.com/living-beyond-borders/
In summary, while Ms. NYT wants to paint AfD as"far-right" they are merely conservative, want soverignty back for Germany from the growing burden of the EU and its unelected Commission, and the REAL far-right are German Turks, which Ms. NYT simply couldn't find....
Between the EU and the imported kaffirs, Germany will be lost in a short time if nothing is done.
Agreed. Good post 👍
First of all, “far right” is never defined directly, but the implication is, that the boogey man of the “far right” is a restoration of some form of fascistic rule.
But fascistic rule is what Germany has right now, and the authoritarian mindset is very much in control, under the guidance of the globalists, like the WEF, and its Maximum Leader, Klaus Schwab. Ubiquitous, mobile supercomputing. Intelligent robots. Self-driving cars. Neuro-technological brain enhancements. Genetic editing. Just some of the “engineering” improvements to make Übermensch of Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept a reality. Of course, for the Übermenschen to assume their rightful place in the hierarchy, there have to be an awful lot of expendable and highly fungible proletarians to support and carry out the scut work every society depends upon.
Politics of the ant-hill raised to an art form.
But in some quarters, the worker ants are not the uniformly dull-witted and unquestioning robotic executors of unchallengeable command and control, but are actually thinking reasoning people, who see a better future that the one held out to them.
George Orwell did not postulate a successful revolution against Big Brother in the dystopian work, “1984”, but the seeds were planted. Winston Smith was crushed, sure, but though he was isolated, he was not the only one entertaining thoughts of “something better than this”.
Maybe they are getting fed up with the BS of the fascists left?
Thanks. And oops, as we've identified to the surveillance state here as in Deustchland that we are.... conservatives.
Being surveilled, the surveillance state has identified itself as fascist/socialist. I'd rather remain a conservative, even though they have the better insignia, rituals and uniforms.... Heil Biden?
Gosh, Mr. reporter, maybe you should have actually tried asking someone in the Afd?
Exactly.
Notice they never use the term *far left*?
Seems they consider themselves centrists and there's the far right but they don't acknowledge ANYTHING to their left.
Public school math failures.
A long delayed response to the Angela Merkel years. I never understood why she kept on being reelected, in spite of the destructive quality of her immigration policies. Maybe the Germans have their own voter fraud problems, aided and abetted by the media, just as we do in the states.
If they don’t like you, they call you “far right” or “extremist.”
Private property was outlawed after the Reichstag Fire.
Nazism is just Marxism with a different armband, and a different outgroup to hate on.
By failing to address any of the issues raised by the AfD such as immigration, the uniparty coalition has alienated more and more voters and made the AfD even more appealing.
Do not know German politics, but if opposing being overrun by immigrants makes one “far right” then are not the sanctuary city Democrats who complain about DeSantis and Abbot bussing immigrants thier way far right?
not just Germany, big shift to the right in many countries; just a few examples
Spain (next election later this year) - the Peoples Party + Vox are poised to win
Netherlands (next election 2025) - the Farmer-Citizens Movements is now the leading party
Norway (next election 2025) - the Conservative Party + Progress Party are now in the lead
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