Grievance triggered the biggest political earthquake in modern Germany. For the first time since World War II, a party with Nazi roots won state elections. In the Thuringia and Saxony state elections, east Germans embraced the “untouchable”, populist far-right party AfD—“Alternative für Deutschland”. Its local leader Björn Höcke hollers banned Nazi slogans; intelligence agencies categorise sections of the party “extremist”. No matter. They bagged the votes of resentful easterners.
East Germans believe history has dealt them a triple whammy. First, they got left behind when they merged with west Germany in 1990 after Soviet Union’s collapse—enduring unemployment, social upheaval and snobbery: Soviet-controlled east was clunky compared to the fashionable west. Then globalisation left east Germany behind with factory closures and immigrants. Then they were left behind by their own educated children, who sought western wages and lifestyles. Equally troubling for west German establishment is the other election winner, the populist hard-left “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance” (BSW). They share AfD’s anti-immigration, pro-Russia worldview. The seven-month-old alliance is vaingloriously named after its chic and coiffed founder, a longstanding communist whom critics dub “Kremlin’s mouthpiece”. Leipzig University’s Hendrik Träger said, ”It’s a personality cult, tailored to the person of Sahra Wagenknecht.”
Price rise, costly green policies and the Ukraine war have contributed to the unpopularity of mainstream parties throughout Europe. In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s federal coalition partners, the Greens and Liberals, were banished from the provincial parliaments. Scholz’s campaign speeches were drowned by boos and insults with voters jeering “Liar” “Warmonger” and “Send Scholz to the warfront”. His coalition is unlikely to win national elections next year.
The east German results also mirror the squeezing of mainstream European parties by hard right and left populists, both of whom oddly share leftist economic views while holding rightwing political, cultural beliefs. Both are anti-business, Euroskeptic, anti-immigration, anti-green, anti-elitist, pro-welfare and pro-Russia. Populists in Germany, France, Britain and Italy reject their government’s narrative that Russia is the aggressor in Ukraine, blaming instead Nato’s enlargement into Russian sphere. They resent financing Ukraine and asylum seekers saying taxpayers’ money is better spent on improving local infrastructure. Voters complain western sanctions against Russia have resulted in painfully high domestic energy prices, fuelling 33 per cent rise in food prices. They oppose Scholz’s plans to station US medium-range missiles in Germany from 2026. Thuringian octogenarian Ulricht Hoffmann grumbled, “Earlier the Soviets dictated everything, now it’s the Americans.”
Germany’s firewall to keep ultranationalists out of government means AfD will be unable to find partners to form a ruling coalition. But AfD already exerts influence from outside. Prior to these polls, their growing popularity forced Scholz to introduce stricter immigration controls, deport illegal migrants, ban knives in public places and reduce welfare benefits for asylum deportees. But business leader Marie-Christine Ostermann warned that populism pushes “Thuringia and Saxony to the brink of an economic catastrophe.” AfD’s Höcke retorted, “Companies should shut their traps when it comes to politics”.
But he would be wise to listen. In recent years, new factories and investments have flowed into eastern Germany, but steep demographic decline portends economic decay. Thuringia will lose close to four lakh of its 10 lakh workers, Saxony faces around 3.6 lakh vacancies in the coming decade in factories, schools, hospitals, care homes. Migrant workers are needed to do the job, but xenophobia frightens foreigners away. The far-right threatens “remigration”—returning migrants to their countries even if they have acquired German citizenship. Unless populists dial down, another chapter in east Germany’s “left behind” saga may yet unfold.
Pratap is an author and journalist.