Germany has seen a record number of protests with a consistently high number of participants, all of them united in their hate against the fascist, Nazi ideology as well as the politics of discrimination. And yet the AfD continues to rank well in the pre-election polls.
On 10th January 2024 the German investigative news outlet Correctiv published a shocking report about a secret meeting attended by influential individuals, businessmen, members close to far-right organizations and political parties like the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland or Alternative for Germany) in Germany as well as the Identitarian movement—a pan-European far right network that believes in the replacement theory and promotes ethnonationalism. The meeting had been convened to allegedly discuss a Masterplan for Remigration—a plan outlining ideas and approaches how people with migration backgrounds could eventually be disavowed and stripped of their German nationality as a decisive step towards establishing a Germany for Germans. Bearing a shocking resemblance not only to German history but also to other contemporary political realities, this piece of news shocked the German civil society to its core. They finally had to come to terms with a political reality that has been in the making for a long time. Since the report was published, Germany has seen a record number of protests with a consistently high number of participants—all of them united in their hate against the fascist, Nazi ideology as well as the politics of discrimination. And yet the AfD continues to rank well in the pre-election polls in 5 states that are headed to elections later this year, the intake of new members on a steady rise. Looking back, one can’t help but wonder, when, why and how did this happen?
The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the end of the Cold War and the ensuing reunification of Germany was a point of time in modern German history that was pregnant with hope and promise, especially for about 16 million East Germans who migrated overnight into a new country, a new way of life without moving an inch. However, fairly early on, their way of life, their means of earning a livelihood, their understanding of civic duties, responsibilities as well as statehood came under massive scrutiny or became redundant. This led to a lot of people feeling a strong sense of loss of agency—they not only lost jobs, livelihoods, social support systems but also a sense of belonging. The only thing that remained consistent was the material circumstance and the inability to build and pass on generational wealth. East Germany was and continued to be economically disadvantaged for a long time. All of this was exacerbated by suddenly having to deal with West Germany, their socio-political and economic realities. The East Germans often didn’t feel that they were a part of the larger “German identity” and this went unnoticed for a long time in German politics, initially ignored thanks to the euphoria of the reunification and later due to a lack of solid political will. East Germany came to represent a space where generational dissatisfaction created a breeding ground for political movements like PEGIDA (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes), AfD to eventually emerge. The rise of these movements, however, cannot be singularly ascribed to the Fall of the Wall.
The time after German reunification saw the emergence of a new political phenomenon. The traditional division of the political spectrum spanning between the left and the right, representative of strong economic and cultural positions, evolved rapidly—the centre became very crowded with quite a few similarities between the political agendas being pursued by the popular parties, the Volksparteien—the CDU/CSU (the Christian Democrats), SPD (the Social Democrats) and the FDP (the Liberals). The centre left came to be occupied by the Greens, while the extreme left became a space where political and societal outcasts gathered. The far right of the spectrum was left wide open for upcoming players since the CDU/CSU alliance, under the leadership of Angela Merkel, abandoned its originally non-negotiable conservative Christian stance to accommodate the challenges of a new era, including issues like migration, secularism, marriage.
This has led us to where we are today—the political cleavage, largely based on the economic and political preferences of the people (conservative, liberal, centre, moderate) started to become increasingly irrelevant. The cultural cleavage, or in the words of the political scientist Pippa Norris, “the silent revolution in cultural values”, started to gain importance and become politicised. People who benefited from the abundance of the capitalist markets but felt unable to keep up with the increasing migration, the changing optics of the German society, people who felt threatened that they would lose out economically to the migrants, people who thought that their identity would be watered down as time progressed were the ones who started to feel that they didn’t have political representation. Especially in Germany which continues to uphold a strong commitment of remembrance and atonement concerning its own past, voicing concerns and discomfort about the Other, whatever the parameter for Othering may be, was a taboo. So a variety of people who felt uncomfortable and overwhelmed by the presence of the Other, people who were struggling with a post-industrialisation, post-reunification Germany, started to build a new political home in this abandoned corner. The lack of acknowledgement and representation of their concerns in domestic political debates like economic well-being, access to education, health, jobs, lack of an upward social mobility for disadvantaged communities, a perceived preference for the welfare of the Other drove the political wedge further and the abandoned corner became a breeding ground for the PEGIDA, AfD etc.
Many found their place in this corner—youth that doesn’t want to carry the burden of the collective guilt but take pride in being German, blue collar workers, farmers that feel that most of the big parties represent the interest of different industries but there is no one providing voice and platform for the common man and by some bizarre logic, immigrants who feel that they would be better represented by a party like the AfD than any of the mainstream parties. The onset of social media and its political instrumentalization to create echo chambers as well as the very polarising opinions about geopolitical conflicts like Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine have further worsened the issue. Despite the problematic logic as well as election manifesto of the AfD that shows just how convoluted their claims are, the reality is that a huge number of people believe that the AfD is a party for the small man, that it will help safeguard the livelihoods and belief systems of the faceless common man. The unwavering political support for the AfD, despite the mass demonstrations across Germany, proves this.
The mass demonstrations give some respite and hope in this gloomy situation. But unless the German polity responds and addresses these questions urgently, the build-up of public pressure would be of no use. The political parties need to join hands and deliver solutions together that cure the cause, not the symptoms. Germany has had waves of migration and going forward, will need it, so it has to ensure that people with migration backgrounds stay, feel safe and at home. The Zeitenwende that Chancellor Scholz so often refers to in the context of a shift in foreign policy also needs to address the internal challenges that Germany faces.
Pradnya Bivalkar is a media and communications professional based in Berlin.