The victory of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt province of Germany found its seed in the decision taken by then Chancellor Angela Merkel to admit almost a million individuals, mostly from North Africa, and put them on a fast track to citizenship. Ultimately her decision led to the families of those admitted into Germany as well, a figure on track to cross two million.
The new domiciles had no concept of what life is in a democracy, having been in dictatorships of one form or the other throughout their lives. It was therefore difficult for many to adjust to democratic norms. Violence was in their DNA, part of their toolkit for survival in the harsh, unforgiving world that they had come from. Women in Germany became particular targets. Skimpy dress was taken as a sign of skimpy morals, and misunderstandings took place, sometimes resulting in assault and rape.
Germany has not gone as far as the United Kingdom in covering up such crimes. In the UK, violence against women are mostly alleged against young people of Pakistani ethnicity, but instead of calling a Pakistani a Pakistani, several newspapers refer to “South Asian” violence, even though no UK citizen of Indian descent and tradition has ever perpetuated such acts against British women.
By covering up the specific identity of those behind such actions, elements of British media are enabling the perpetrators of such acts to be free of suspicion, giving them cover to continue with such acts, including that of “grooming gangs”. Such crinkles in the social fabric are what is driving more and more mainstream voters in the UK towards the Reform Party, which appears on track to form the next government in the UK, just as Marine Le Pen, despite the lawfare that President Emmanuel Macron has subjected her to, seems set to replace him in the Elysee Palace in the next French Presidential polls.
Italy already has a government led by Primo Ministro Giorgia Meloni that is running the country well rather than (as was first feared) ruining it. In Germany, the AfD seems to be on the path to leading the next coalition government, Small wonder that Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democrats is dismayed at the Saxony-Anhalt results.
Critics have called the AfD as the Nazi Party reborn a hundred years later. This is untrue. The Nazis had no ideology except obedience to a psychotic, choleric, Adolf Hitler. The AfD has a decentralised command structure with no “Fuehrer” (leader) the way the Nazis had.
Hitler saw in war the means to the deliverance of Germany into prosperity. In contrast, the AfD opposes German participation in the Russia-Ukraine war that Chancellor Merz is pursuing. Most of the German public are unhappy with the ballooning costs of the Ukraine war and its impact on prices, not least by the cutoff of import of cheap fuel from Russia.
Unlike Hitler, who hated Russia, the leaders of the AfD wished to end German involvement with arming and funding Ukraine.
Fears that the AfD is anti-Jewish are overblown. The Jewish people are among the most productive citizens of Germany, and there has not been a single word or action against them, unlike in the case of the Nazis, who were psychotically against a community that has given the world so many gifts of the intellect.
Neither the Reform Party in the UK nor the followers of Marine le Pen who broke with her father because of his Nazified views are hostile to the Jewish people.
As for immigrants, those who work hard and who contribute in taxes rather than act as a drain on the exchequer are welcome. Europe is changing, and the change has to be factored into the foreign policy of the largest democracy in the world, India.
Even the Scandinavian countries are shifting their hitherto “liberal” attitudes towards immigration of net drainers of the exchequer. Many years ago, this writer had spoken of the AfD as a future significant power in German politics, and such a day has come with its victory in Saxony-Anhalt.
After such a step forward, those who were inwardly supportive of the AfD will come out of the shadows and vote for the part in other elections. Italy already has moved rightwards, and the UK, France and Germany will follow.
It will be a different Europe, but the odds are that it will be a friendlier Europe to India and to the country’s abundance of law-abiding citizens and trainable in technology and industry citizens.
