Posted on 03/13/2016 4:59:51 PM PDT by mandaladon
MAGDEBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Supporters of Germany's new anti-immigration party erupted into raucous celebrations in this eastern city on Sunday after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged into three state assemblies with scores that would have been unthinkable only a year ago.
"What an amazing evening," Andre Poggenburg, the AfD leader in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, said in a fiery speech in the state capital Magdeburg, calling the result "brilliant".
"We fought like lions for your land," he said, dismissing Angela Merkel as "the worst chancellor in the history of Germany."
Formed three years ago in opposition to euro zone bailouts, the AfD has morphed into an anti-immigration party over the past year, kicking out its founder and seizing on a record influx of migrants to lure new voters and steal disaffected members of Merkel's conservatives.
On Sunday they had their best day ever, winning a shocking 24 percent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, to become the second-biggest party in the state parliament.
The AfD also performed better than polls predicted in two other states, winning nearly 15 percent in the prosperous southern region of Baden-Wuerttemberg and over 12 percent in Rhineland Palatinate, a western wine-making state.
Exit polls showed that the AfD drew most of their support from people who previously hadn't voted for a party, but they also drew thousands of voters from Merkel's conservatives, particularly in Baden-Wuerttemberg.
While populist, anti-immigrant parties have thrived for years in other European countries, Germany has been an exception, in part because opposition to far-right ideologies runs deep because of the country's Nazi past.
The refugee crisis has changed all that. More than a million migrants entered Germany last year, unsettling many Germans and turning the AfD into a force on the national stage almost overnight.
(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...
“So how is importing the nearest thing we have to Nazis today atone for the past sin of supporting Nazis? “
Exactly
Damn good question and you do a superb job of explaining the idiocy of such a claim in post #20!
Well said.
Well let's not get carried away. But I vote second worst, for sure.
Celebrate? The fatal injury has already been inflicted. 1.2 million invaders are already in, and will NEVER be removed.
3 German State Elections.
In traditional conservative stronghold Baden-Württemberg which went over to the dark side (Green led coalition with SPD) in the last election, the CDU, this new Eurosceptic party AfD and the Free Democrats have won a majority of seats. The 3 parties can form a center-right government if they are willing to cooperate.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, same result, the Socialist/Green government lost it’s majority, 3 center-right parties have the majority.
In Saxony-Anhalt which was governed by a CDU/SPD grand coalition, the CDU and Afd just barely have the majority, CDU/SPD is not a majority together any longer, add the Greens and they still aren’t, the communists are the only other party with seats, no FDP seats. Don’t see an alternative to CDU/Afd coalition there.
So the question is are the CDU and FDP willing to govern with the AfD or are they gonna be a-holes?
Thanks Impy. On the CNBC stream on my Roku, Merkel’s election losses were framed as modest, since even in Saxony, the 25 percent support for opposition was said to mean 75 percent support. Text is similar here, not sure if the vid plays (old CPU):
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/14/merkel-down—but-not-out—in-germany.html
I don't know about that. The german's thought they had a pesky jew problem once.
I’ve been saying for a decade or more that I expect to see concentration camps in Europe in my lifetime. The only question is Who will be running them?
Governments will be formed excluding the AfD Party.
That was already known before the elections and it is SOP when one party is considered ‘racist’ or ‘extreme right wing’ like AfD.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the eastern German state where AfD came in second yesterday, the CDU (Christian Democrats) will ally with the third ranking party Die Linke (former East German Communists) to form a government without AfD.
I was really happy when I thought the 25 percent was country wide.
but 15 and 13 in the other two areas are better than nothing
I don’t know how it’s not 45 percent with ease.
Momementum mounting against Islamic refugees throughout the Free World.
A prediction that keeps unfolding ...
The Free World is Undergoing a Revolution in Patriotic Courage
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3381137/posts
Political Correctness has Neutered Patriotism
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3408595/posts
The more that the Euro-Tyrant-Establishment resists, the worst the backlash will get.
Arthur wrote ‘worst’. What an idiot! ‘Worse’. Probably forgot to drink his coffee.
Why not? Eisenhower deported that many Mexicans in the fifties. It's not rocket science.
After the smoke cleared with the election yesterday....this coalition thing has put the whole order of things into a tailspin.
Baden-Wurttemberg: The Greens have been told that for a CDU-partnership to occur, the top Green guy (Kretschschmann) will have to retire (he’s the whole focus-point of the Greens in the state). Plan B? The Greens would have to partner with the SPD and FDP....the FDP has strongly hinted that they won’t be agreeable. The odds of the Greens being forced out of their leadership even though they won the election? Better than fifty-percent chance.
Pfalz: If the SPD cannot get the CDU to the table and agree with a coalition deal....the only possibility is a SPD-Green Party-FDP deal. Again, the FDP is hinting they may not be agreeable.
Sachsen: The CDU is stuck. Either partner up with the Linke Party (an impossible team) or partner with the SPD, and Greens.
In the end, the AfD percentage in each state has created a very tough coalition-building atmosphere and reasonable doubt that things can be worked out (if not.....another election within 90 days).
CDU would rather work with the communists? WOW. FAIL.
pepsionice: “The odds of the Greens being forced out of their leadership even though they won the election? Better than fifty-percent chance.”
Haha. Give me our good ole’ USA first past the post 2 party system any day.
“the FDP is hinting they may not be agreeable.”
Good, I hope they don’t prop up the bad guys.
Looks like some major chaos in Germany. New elections might in the cards eh? Boy oh boy.
Someone makes a small grammatical error and you call them an idiot. What are you going to do when a person uses quotation marks wrong? Shoot them? Come on. Can we concentrate on important matters and stop with the mudslinging.
“Someone makes a small grammatical error and you call them an idiot.”
The lesson to all of us is to read things calmly, and if it sounds offensive reread it to make sure that we didn’t miss something (such as sarcasm, or self-criticism).
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