Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I see Twitter throwing a fit over AfD winning or almost winning in Germany. Can somebody please loop me in about the drama of it all?
AfD is the national-populist party in Germany, that is, they favor socially reactionary and economically redistributive policies. Germany has coalition governments at both federal and state levels, and all other parties have agreed on a "firewall" against AfD: no matter how much they win, they won't join their coalition. The biggest sin of AfD in their eyes is that it's openly tolerant of ethnonationalists all the way to "Hitler couldn't have done everything wrong".
Saxony-Anhalt is a state in former East Germany, which has a different approach to the legacy of the Third Reich, and AfD has just won a plurality of the votes there, almost a majority. What makes West Germans run like headless chicken is that BSW (a splinter Left party that favors economically redistributive and socially reactionary policies) is willing to enter into a coalition with them, threatening the integrity of the firewall.
Which, in my opinion, would be the best outcome. By being locked out of the government, populist parties like AfD are free to criticize the mainstream parties as much as they want, earning free points with the electorate. "We would show them, oh, we would show them how it's done, but they are afraid of our methods working and losing their popularity forever!" they keep on saying. Well, now they get a chance to show everyone how it's done in a single state; they run it into the ground without affecting the rest of the country, and their popularity craters. Or, suddenly thrust into the driver's seat, they self-moderate their populism and become much closer to other mainstream parties in actual policies, obviating the need for a firewall.
IMO the AfD can only lose. They didn't outright lose the election, good on them, apparently they managed to sway the voters. But the voters aren't their biggest problem. Now they need to wheel and deal in parliament to make things happen, with partners all of whom hate their guts and will do everything in their power to make them fail. And even if that were not the case, they would have to work against the strict resistence of all institutions public and private, of the federal government, of the EU, and of everyone else who gets to interfere. Regardless of how well they do in the election, they're set up for failure in any case, and will come out of it looking bad.
Doubt. The AfD has the black spot. They're the designated target that everyone can legitimately direct their hatred at. In the public consciousness, they inherit all the detestability of the OG Nazis. Associating with them is a surefire way to get unpersoned in polite society. If they moderate now, become closer to the mainstream, then all that will do is lose them their popular support since "not part of the mainstream" is pretty much all they have going for them. Thus weakened, any incentives to remove the firewall will be similarly weakened, and the AfD remains more valuable as the socially agreeable punching bag than as a coalition partner.
What's the sort of thing that they could (theoretically) make happen on the state level, by the way?
There's a handful of things that are actually still up to the states in this heavily centralized pseudo-federation:
And there's a good bit of culture warring to be done in all of those. But as with everything in Germany, it's all secured by lightyears of red tape, so what little they can do there will take disproportionate amounts of effort and time, and always against the resistance of the establishment in each of those areas, and is likely to be swiftly undone by the next government that actually has the deep state on its side.
As for the big issue, immigration, they can't really do much. Maybe redirect some immigrants to other states, maybe inconvenience immigrants here and there, but ultimately the incentive structures are created at the federal level and the enforcement failures are at the EU level. Sachsen-Anhalt, being a Binnenstaat, isn't even at the German borders.
Question because I legitimately don't know- is the AFD likely to have access to the human capital to start doing any of this stuff? That's been a problem for controversial right wing governments in very established, procedurally suffocating countries. Germany's cordon sanitaire has seemed unusually effective until now.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link