German elections

[hollodero]

(09-26-2017, 11:25 PM)Dill Wrote: Thanks for the run down. I was living in Germany when the wall fell and a couple years after, so I remember Gysi et al. Lafontaine's star was rising back then. But I've only followed German politics occasionally since. Haven't been there since 2011, before the big migrant problem.

Oh... have you also been to Hasselhoff's wall concert where he sang "looking for freedom" there? This brought the wall down. Hasselhoff at least believes that.

(09-26-2017, 11:25 PM)Dill Wrote: The angry destructive fuse lighter vote describes the rank and file, and it makes sense that their support is strong in the former DDR, but I am puzzled so much of the leadership seem to be "Akademiker" and legal professionals in somewhat elevated and respected positions like state prosecutors. Those are usually the kind of people who plan things and take a longer view of actions and their consequences. They want to legitimize and normalize the extreme right. The angry destructive fuse lighter vote in the US and Britain generally rejects that kind of leadership.

I think one other difference might be that in Germany, for a long time, there have been small right wing parties(National party, Republikaner), different ones in different regions, but too incompatible to merge. The AfD may be collecting that vote too, bringing them together in an uneasy umbrella.

This is certainly true, they were split; and now joined the rest of Europe (well... most of the rest) in having one distinct anti-establishment, right-wing populism party. Still not too united though. AfD is still engaged in trench warfares. (When my countrys right-wing party engaged in actual governing, they split.)

As for the educated peope being part of the party, demagogry doesn't know these boundaries that would seem logical maybe. I don't wat to make too many cross references, but American AfU has a well connected millionaire as leader, and his administration is full of generals and wall street guys. The little guy doesn't rise to power with these movements. Didn't in my country, doesn't in the US, wouldn't in Germany.

(09-26-2017, 11:25 PM)Dill Wrote: Der Spiegel had a report on a small community outside Dresden with just under 14,000 inhabitants and only TEN asylum seekers, but a third of that community voted AfD.  The claim is that, curiously, the AfD has done well in places with few migrants.  In the US, conversely, Trump seems to have done well in places where racial diversity is higher and politically troubling.

Yeah, isn't that the most astonishing thing. It's not new. The less migrants there are in one region, the more rallied up people seem to be about migration, it's the same in Austria as well. Right-wing populism, as of now, doesn't do too good in cities where the migrants are. They do well on the countryside where people seldomly would even see one. Was the same with Pegida, if you know that one, only had success in low-migration regions as well.
Especially for Germany, I want to add that the former Soviet countries, including East Germany, seem very susceptible to right-wing rhetorics. Why, I still haven't figured out completely. But it's everywhere in the East of Europe.