There a a couple reasons why the AfD is attracting support (their energy policy & anti-immigration stance), but I think the chapter on stereotyping explains part of the problem. Rather than refuting the AfD, they just get called buzzwords. The AfD is enjoying popularity because it's the only party expressing (coincidentally) alternatives.
"they just get called buzzwords" I am not sure what you mean by that. Of cause there are a lot of good reasons why the AFD is called a fascist or right-extremist organization. But its just pretty hard to name all the hundreds of different examples of it in every discussion. To say, the people vote for them, because they "just" want another stance on immigration, even if they are not really fascists, is like saying, this people are dumb and have no clue about how far right the organization they are supporting actually is. One third of the members are actual extremists two thirds of them are naive and blind followers
@@kasetoast8354there’s a lot of evidence to provide that AfD is indeed quite far-right; look at the Höcke faction, and some of its members were documented to have received funds by the Russian government. It’s something that doesn’t make sense.
Communist Vietnam was considered a close friend of East Germany. In fact, meeting Vietnamese people used to be part of the daily lives of many East Germans. That may have contributed to the effect your Vietnamese friend has observed.
@@christiankastorf4836 In the build-up to the ’92 attacks, local neo-nazis even went so far as to publicly side with the Vietnamese inhabitants in a newspaper ad.
@@Claudible I drove through Rostock that Sundy night, wondered about the many police cars and learned only the next day what had happened. That Monday was the first day on my job in "MVP" and I soon learned and understood how much especially young people, 12, 13, 14 years of age, were delighted about all that violence against "foreignerns", "strangers", and the like. Because there were no Turks, Arabs, Asians .. the little town were I worked those thugs then vandalized a Russian café or tearoom, following the principle "foreigner is foreigner". When we got a Korean girl in one of my classes "Ausläder 'raus" was scribbled on the blackboard the following day. I informed the headmaster and he did NOTHING, putting it into my hands, knowing that I was such a hated "foreigner" as well, being from the west. A few weeks later the Ministry of Education sent the form for an elaborate survey on "youth violence" and acts of racism and the like to all schools to be filled in carefully. Our headmaster had all of us come into the staffroom during a break, then held the paper in his hands, showing his contept for the ministry, took his pen, read the questions aloud and made the necessary crosses in our names, not even asking if one of us had a different or diverging answer. Everything was just fine and nothing to worry.
As an asian living in Saxony, I totally agree with the view of the vietnamese you interviewed. I'm gonna go further to even say that in my personal experience, I've experienced so much more racism in west germany. I used to have to travel a lot between Dortmund and Berlin while living in Leipzig. I get a racist remark from people almost every week in Berlin, even worse in Dortmund. Only had it once in my entire stay in Leipzig. The old people were always really nice. Perhaps ignorant and uninformed but never intentionally racist for the purpose of being an asshole. I completely agree that the young people are always the ones to be racist so far. But I'm going to say something controversial so bear with me here and keep in mind that this is just my personal experience, take it how you will. 9/10 times I as an asian get racism, it's almost always from either younger turkish people or young middle easterns, almost never germans. Funnily enough I have doubted my own bias for a while until I met my community of fellow asian friends and casually asked them about this. They said the exact same thing so it's quite hard to say that i just got "unlucky" when almost every other asian I've met say the exact same thing. We just shut up about it because it'll sound racist if we say it. Take that as you will. Again, not saying all of them are like this but when it keeps happening it's quite a given that I myself would start developing biases. Now comfortably living in Dresden where i pretty much feel safe most of the time. Edit: Didn't expect so many people to be interested. Thank you for the civil questions and discussions. I'd be glad to discuss further about the topic :)
There is a similar phenomenon where virtually all homophobic and antisemitic attackers are of recent Turkish or MENA extraction, and a highly disproportionate number of sexual offences and general violent assaults as well. But there is a conspiracy of silence around these uncomfortable facts because to speak of them risks giving oxygen to some very unpleasant people. The typical liberal "native" German's response when this sort of thing is brought up is something among the lines of "I don't think it matters to victims where their perpetrators come from" and a refusal to engage further. On the one hand this sounds reasonable, at least for any particular case. But on the other hand it is an enormous abdication of any responsibility to solve a growing problem, and a growing sign of the longstanding failure of certain segments of the population to integrate. Couple this with the left-wing tendency to elide the rise in these sorts of hate crimes with incidents of anti-immigrant racism from "native" Germans (implying that the rise in all such incidents is due to white right-wing reactionaries on the march), and the further left-wing demand to permanently open the borders to am unlimited number of migrants from these areas, and you have a recipe for disaster.
60% turnout is actually pretty darn good for east Germany. There have been quite a few elections in the east in recent times when turnout was so low (sub 20%), that the quorum wasn't reached and district heads and mayors had to be elected by the councils instead of the electorate. 60% is actually average for most local west german local elections.
Local yes, but that's part of the problem. The continuous low turnout for the local elections is horrifying. It probably wouldn't be possible but what if we had the Australian system, which forces everyone to vote?
@@gabrielmartins8483I disagree. If you have no idea about politics or simply don't care, then it's better if you don't vote than just pick a random party
As a German with foreign roots and someone who knows what Fascism is - its definition I cannot stand with this BS. I can have a discussion with right wingers and in the end, not be of one opinion. but with a fascist as in the Green Party, I cannot No discussion is allowed. The Green Party is an eco fascist movement, not a Democratic Party. please do me the favor and look up the definition of fascism. Then check the Green Party and its connections to the so called green energy sectoe... Maybe, just maybe you should think for yourself and not read in the papers, what to think. Right now, in Germany, there is a psychological phenomenon going on. It is called mass formation. When this went on in Germany the last time it was called the Third Reich. Today we have the fourth industrial revolution, or the Fourth Reich.
@@wattsefakk9593 I have read the definitions of facism, so should you. I put them here for you. Webster: 1) often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition 2) a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Duden: Bedeutungen (2) 1) von Mussolini errichtetes Herrschaftssystem in Italien (1922-1945) nach dem Führerprinzip organisierte, nationalistische, antidemokratische, rechtsradikale Bewegung, Ideologie 2) auf dem Faschismus (2a) basierende totalitäre Herrschaftsform -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OED: fascism n. 1 an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.2 (in general use) extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice. The term fascism was first used of the totalitarian right-wing nationalist regime of ...fascist n. fascistic adj.from Italian fascismo, from fascio 'bundle, political group,' from Latin fascis 'bundle.' ... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- the OED one is just an exerpt
4:35 This is inaccurate or at least misleading. For a Landratswahl 60% is actually unusually high. Just 20% aren't unusual. 60% is at the top end of voter turn out for this type of election.
The issue with the "they're not nazis, they're just regular people/protest voters/concerned citizens or whatever" is that the nazis were also just regular people who were pissed off about the government and got enthusiastic when a guy came along who told them he could fix all the problems and punish the bad guys. The nazis were extremely racist and antisemitic but that wasn't all that unusual at the time. In the end one of the worst crimes in human history was blamed on "the nazis" like they were different from the regular german people. We should absolutely not assume that the AfD isn't that dangerous because their voters aren't all violent neonazi skinheads.
Using the term 'Nazis' vs the German population often implies that a 'Nazi' spaceship landed in Germany around 1929 ... ... whereas all the Nazis used to be regular Germans before they were radicalised. And there were way more Nazis than people today realise.
no, for sure not cause from the very beginning they were rambling and fighting through the street where you can find 100s of pictures from the earls 20s on, I mean 1920s Please send us all the pictures you can find from german afd members fighting in the streets ! Have not seen afd here fighzin in the street. And such comments are the best support of the afd who describe them intentionally false therefore congratulations. Mayor electionn is also a diffenrent thing than a party election.
Wenn du die AfD wirklich so schlimm findest, mache folgendes Experiment: Vergleiche ein aktuelles AfD Wahlprogramm mit einem NSDAP Programm und einem Wahlprogramm von Kohl aus den 90ern. Bin mal gespannt, ob die AfD dann immer noch do schlimm ist oder doch nur etwas konservativer als heute üblich.
You are correct in your statement, that just because the voter demographic consists not entirely of right wing extremists, the AFD is not dangerous. And it is something to always bear in mind. But I also want to bring up that this statement slightly misses the point when it comes to the argument brought forth here. Because this is not about if the AFD is dangerous or not. That is a fact. The issue is more about them poaching votes from frustrated members of society, because the current administration is either unwilling or unable to address their concerns. Just like in the last 20s/30s. And in addition it doesn't feel like the current administration is even *trying*. It feels like they shrug and say:"Tough break." No wonder people consider voting for the party who promises to fix things. Cause even if it fails, they at least did *something* For the last roughly 15-20 years our country has had a very "slow and steady" attitude regarding government. Which is the safest but also the least progressive form. A lot of people wants our government to *DO SOMETHING* even if that something turns out to be driving off a cliff. I am not advocating for the AFD, far from it, but it certainly is no surprise why we are at this point again.
Great video! And I do agree that the main problem is incompetence of the "traditional parties". CDU needs to reinvent themselves, since they are still lost without Merkel.
The CDU needs to de-Merkelize itself and become a conservative party again. Many conservative voters I know express disgust at the current state of the CDU and think that party is now just another version of the Social Democrats. So they won't vote for the CDU, but for other parties they think are still conservative. The AfD being the most prominent of those.
@@oerthling "The funny thing is that Merkel wasn't a traditional CDU politician." true, she came from the former east. And was one of the most popular politicians in the history of modern germany, because she was centrist-conservative.
I think one of the bigger factors is simply the problems with the mainstream parties. CDU/CSU has been in power for decades and let many things grow into the problems they now are, and are unwilling to take responsibility. Not only that, but the corruption within the party has become a serious problem, which has blown up in their faces during Corona. The SPD feels very passive and doesn't seem to do all that much despite them leading the coalition. They don't hold any solid position and are just vaguely center-left for the most part. The FDP is going back on things they already agreed upon and criticise their coalition partners as if they were part of the opposition even though they already agreed to it. Either cooperate or don't be part of the coalition The Grüne is unable to follow through on a lot of their ambitions, a lot of it due to the FDP, and them having to give up to get to a compromise looks very hypocritical. At this point, it seems like they support big companies destroying the climate but punish the common man with restrictions due to what they've been able to implement to a lot of people. The Linke is as always infighting and a mix of radical ideas, the only thing going for them is that they're not really part of the establishment. Meanwhile the AfD can mock and be derisive all they want, and can cherry-pick the topics that are easiest to gain support for
Shockingly accurate examination of the issue. Here in the US, I see a similar divide. While I am more of a left sided moderate, I can see why so many are on the far right. Many in that range are rural and society has become widely divided when comparing urban and rural religion status, education, career fields, traditions etc.. it’s like two completely different countries tbh. Top that with urban areas having most of the voting power, it’s a powder keg ready to go off. Rural life can be hard enough then feeling like they have no voice, no control over their towns and livelihood.. of course they are getting more extreme.
Well the US is 100% ideology driven while germans are not that stupid usually altough its rare to find people here who can be considered competent intelligent adults too. The main reason for the AFD taking off is so simple bro: The current leaders are brainlets and have done nothing for us apart from making our lives more difficult and more expensive throught doubling down on insane policies incompatible with the real world. The AFD promises to not be like them, thats all.
@@oerthling Where is he broadcasting from? Is he broadcasting from Germany, or England? Honest question. And where is meant be an "immigrant" from? England to Germany? Or something else? All honest questions.
HAHAHA are you actually serious?? this guy is not even aware what he is talking about, the fact he is calling the AFD nazis/fascists already shows he has no knowledge of political ideologies.
@@jaydenl.d8528 Oh they're assholes alright, and they are reminiscent of some Fascist Moments, but that's as far as it goes. Just your run of the mill assholes.
There are a lot of defenses left. Germany is a federal republic and a lot of powers are separated out to avoid anything being concentrated in any point of failure. Zero elections in Germany since the war has resulted in a single party majority. The Union has won a narrow majority in the 50s, once. The Federal Constitutional Court can only be appointed by a two thirds vote in Parliament, and there are still lots of judges into their twelve year terms, and are very strict on the basic fundamentals of human rights. The EU is a part of the constitution and so it takes a two thirds vote in both houses of Parliament of Germany to leave. The military has a lot of restrictions as do the security services, lots of.laws on privacy, no doubt inspired by the Gestapo and the Stasi, corruption in Germany, while not absent, is way less common than it was in many other places, and bureaucracy obstructs rapid control over the civil service, as does federalism. The courts are strong and independent. Emergency powers are extremely strict in Germany, no doubt from the legacy of Article 48. There is no president who can seriously challenge the legislature the way they could in 1932, the legislators have immunity to protect them from intimidation, committees also have strong powers as does the minority of any committee to investigate and compel the truth. Snap elections are very hard to carry out to gain power, the chancellor and all of the minister-presidents are protected by a constructive vote of no confidence that takes an absolute majority of the members of the Bundestag and can only be initiated by a quarter of the MPs. They all have a means to choose a chancellor by compelling a political solution in a way that makes it much harder to cause parliamentary chaos and gridlock. The political parties all have important rules that make it hard to do stupid finances and compels transparency within the party and a ruling party has way fewer ways to compel discipline among themselves in an authoritarian manner the way Hitler controlled the NSDAP. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the legislature and courts can dissolve parties in a particular process for unconstitutionality and they have done this before. There are way fewer points of failure that can create bad ideas and empower a single party over any others like the Weimar Republic.
There have been single party majorities in state elections, such as Bavaria with CSU achieving far over 50% uninterrupted from 1970 until 2003, with peaks over 60 even. Also West Berlin state elections where SPD achieved over 50% through 1960s, peaking over 60.
There is Artikel 20 of the German Grundgesetz, the German 'constitution' (I've put it in hyphens as there are still idiots who claim it is not a real constitution because it doesn't say so on the tin; however if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims and dives and flies like a duck, it is a duck). It contains several clauses that rigidly protect all human rights and any negative changes to those rights. What is interesting is that it states that all government is elected by the people, and all legislative is limited to the government; all executive and judicative are limited by laws and orders under the principles of the constitution. Then comes article 20, paragraph 4. In this case it states clearly that EVERY German has the right to defend the ORDER of the constitution by ANY means if it is assaulted by non-democratic forces; if no other methods of defending the constitution is possible. This includes law suits, but also right up to public disobedience and even violence if necessary. It has been called upon several times in the past, but none of those cases were deemed within the constitutional reasoning as no attempts were made to change these fundamental human rights. However, the AfD has proclaimed in their party's program certain intents to change several of these basic human rights from everyone to only SOME people. This makes them essentially NON-DEMOCRATIC which is also the reasoning behind the Verfassungsschutz / the constitutional protection agency why the AfD is considered an extremist, non-democratic party worthy of being investigated; potentially even banned, just like its predecessors the NVU and the NPD. So if the government doesn't pick up the slack and seriously investigates the allegations of extremist right-wing activities in the AfD, then it becomes every Germans right to resist the AfD by any means. Yes, ANY means. While this is a truly last case emergency resort, it is STILL a legitimate measure against a party that has declared multiple times its intention to remove or change the fundamental human rights enshrined in the first twenty articles of the Grundgesetz.
"Zero elections in Germany since the war has resulted in a single party majority. The Union has won a narrow majority in the 50s, once." Zero free elections in Germany for a nation wide democratic parliament have resulted in a single party majority. Thus since 1848, not just since 1949. Apart from the Union (CDU/CSU/DP) in 1957 with 50,2%.
I'm convinced that the 5% rule also helps to boost them. While in theory there are dozens of parties you can vote for, the reality is if you are a protest voter and your goal is to punish the "big 5", your vote will only actually achieve anything if you give it to a party that will finish above 5%. If your vote just ends up in the "others" group, you have effectively *supported* the parties that you wanted to punish. So the AfD acts as a big magnet for protest voters because if you vote for them, it's pretty much guaranteed that your vote will punish the "big 5". My fear is that this will end in a situation like brexit where only after the damage has been done that voters realize "well yes I did technically vote for this party, but I did not actually want those consequences".
So you are only partially right ... as someone from eastern germany I have to say that xenophobic and racist stereotypes are very prevalent in the east and this through all age groups. Also when you check out statements from after the fall of the Berlin wall, when west german Neo-Nazis came to the east, the were incredibly surprised how many neo-nazis were already there and how well organized they were already, but this just as s side note ... the main point is with the already existing attitudes, the toughening economic situation for many, and there it doesn't really matter, if you are well off actually, because it is about the perceived threat of economic decent, results in many people are being afraid or are already shut off from social success via fulfilling the check marks one has to fulfill as a successful citizen, to draw self-worth from them, like having a house, a well paid job, securing a good future for ones children etc. etc. etc. And under such felt threat, the only thing that cannot be taken away is ones "germaness" and this is what than results in an amplification of the already xenophobic and racist attitudes. Also the call for a strong leader who will clean up house. And I am afraid, once people are on that path, there is no way back for them, i.e., they are lost for good. So improvement of economic conditions would only keep more from sliding towards support of the AfD, but it is hard to believe to get many of the voters back. And especially it would not be possible to get them back by adopting the AfDs rhetoric, that would just legitimize the AfD even further, but this is sadly what the CDU/CSU is doing.
I agree that the problem here are the old parties, but I stay somewhat optimistic that the recent rise of the AfD is only temporary. We have seen it before, the idea of the AfD is way longer around, but under different names. In the 90s there was the DVU and they reached nearly 13% in Sachsen-Anhalt at one point... but then they fizzled out and got swallowed by the NPD. I think the AfD is here to stay, but unless they try to become more moderat, I don't see them getting into a gouvernment coalition.
Im under 30 and vote AfD. 😊 And the main Voter Support are 30-50 if the 60 boomers die there will be much higher support for AfD. 🎉 Culture war not even has started.
The AfD is the only anti woke Partie in Germany, so no i think the AfD didn't move right, any other big Partie move left. But the Leader of the "Verfassungsschutz" worked for a communist paper! So did you belivie a communist in the question who ist a Nazi?
Additionally, the AfD members are anything but homogeneous in their views, which has led to them spluttering before, and most likely will do again once many of them show their true colours.
@@BigTwitchy thats true, we have social demokrats, liberals, conservatives, but we didn't have neo Nazis. If we have them, why we hatte the NPD? The real Nazi Party?
Hi there, startup company from Saxony Anhalt here. We specialize in cloud computing and remote working ... I'm writing this because rewboss is right. Some of might've wondered if such a thing (high tech company in an East-German federal state) is even possible. Almost all of our employees are 30 or under and even we are very aware of this West-East conflict in people's heads. The patronizing, the teasing, and the overall smugness DID contribute a LOT to the aggressive self-pity of many older generations in this area. How can we solve that? By looking at each other on the same level. We are not better or worse, we are just human. Our two cents to the discussion. Thanks!
I have to say thank you so much for th ebit about "lazily stereotyping Saxons or AfD voters as Nazis isnt helping". I am neither from Saxony nor an AfD voter by any means, but i totally agree with that statement. I know AfD voters and if there is one thing that i can saya it is that simply labeling them as one thing and then maybe even make fun of that group of people just strengthens their beliefs.
AfD voters are nazis. you literally can not be an AfD voter and not be a nazi. stereotyping saxons of course is stupid. "I know AfD voters and if there is one thing that i can saya it is that simply labeling them as one thing and then maybe even make fun of that group of people just strengthens their beliefs." if you willingly associate with nazis, you are a nazi, too.
This video is very misleading. Over the last 20 years, all the bigger parties in Germany have shifted sharply to the left. Even the traditionally conservative CDU now takes positions, that were typically for a left party, only 10 to 15 years ago. For germans, that do not support leftists ideology, there is literally no other option, than voting for the AfD. On top of this, the german government, has recently taken a series of extremely poor decissions, like shutting off all nuclear plants, leading ro an extreme rise in energy prices, just to mention one. More unreasonable decisions to come, continously destroying the german economy. If you do not support this, you have to vote for the AfD, which, btw. is not so much right-wing, but much more represents a conservativ position, comparable to the former conservative CDU. That is the actual reason, for the rising numbers of potential AfD-voters
Thanks for reminding me, and it’s not just Germany, just look at Scandinavia and some of your neighbours (that southern one and 3 - small - ones to the west) You could say France as well, but I France is just France, it’s just funny how normal Macron looks to me as a politician and I never would even imagine liking something other as cuisine from France
This theory that the left moved more left while the right stayed in the same spot has also been touted by Republicans, and it's simply factually incorrect. What really happened is that **both** sides got more radical, especially during the social media age where it's very easy to sit behind a screen and let emotions boil over into your political leanings.
@@Moving_Castles4278 It means a lot to me, that all non-german viewers (which are obviously most of the YT-viewers) are not mislead, by this type of videos. This type of videos are politically motivatiated by the Left, and do not represent the actual situation in Germany. There is NOT a danger of rising numbers of Germans voting extrem-right. It's quite the contrary: we do have a government, of a social democrats and the Green party, both following very left leaning agenda. Where the Green managed to become very dominant in the government, despite being the smaller party, pursuing a policy that is extremely destructive for the german economy. Those german citizens, how do not agree to a destructive left-leaning government, have literally no other possibility, than voting for the AfD. These people are not a threat. Germany is NOT shifting right. The real concern is the very left-leaning german government, destroying the economy. While a growing number of Germans are concerned about the destruction of the economy, and turn away from the leftists government, the government makes it look like, these would be extreme-right voters. Witch is absolutely not true. Please do not believe this propaganda of the left-leaning german government.
I keep rubbing my eyes to see that it takes a Brit to take up on this matter in a way most German outlets would be unable to, and that in a fair, open minded, well balanced and everything-but-biased way. Absoutely great stuff, should be used as a reference for everybody, Germans and non-Germans alike. Please keep up with taking up on challenging stuff like this.
Thanks for sharing your views. It's been really interesting to learn your opinion as someone without the historical ballast of growing up in either West/East or the unified Germany. But even if you forgot about the far-right orientation of the AfD party for a moment, I don't think that they provide any "alternative" for Germany as their name suggests. What they do is to provide a handful of either irrational or irrelevant promises in the sense of "If only X wasn't there, you'd be living in prosperity" If only there weren't any immigrants, if only we hadn't been involved in the war of Russia against Ukraine, if there wasn't that discussion about gender, and so on. While I consider it perfectly acceptable (or even feasible) to have more than one opinion on immigration, involvement in foreign wars or whether or not pronouns are the most important topic of this age, their "alternatives" are focused on these populist topics which guarantee lots of attention. They provide no answers how an export-oriented economy like Germany will benefit from leaving the Euro zone. Which is even more bizarre as even populist right-wing parties elsewhere in Europe clearly identify Germany as the biggest winner of being part of the Euro zone. They consider Germans living in a dystopia where everything is broken, run down or working the wrong way. While there ARE many things to critisize, it totally lacks proportion and any reality check. They will usually pick ONE other country which handles ONE issue different than Germany (and handles it better, agreed) as proof that Germany is doomed without getting the bigger picture. So they want the immigration policy as in Denmark, the isolationism and "freedom from EU rule" as Switzerland, keep up free market for exports but not for imports, have less government intervention while keeping up social/ fiscal benefits for the "right" (no pun intended) people and so on. It's the same old cherry-picking pattern you find in Brexiteers, the Austrian FPÖ, French FN or followers of Trumpism. On the other hand, in order to distance themselves from AfD, the other parties often have the knee-jerk reaction to dismiss the issues the AfD raises altogether. So they would not provide counter-arguments but rather say that the issues do not exist. Which is also not a great way to take part in an argument.
Very well said, but as polls show, already 20% of voters believe that criticising is a policy. It is already like that in US, but more around 30%. It is unfortunately mostly due to the "leaking" education system and problems with critical thinking. Ausbildung is not the answer to everything.
What you said about the reasons for people in the East voting for populists (the structural effects of reunification) fits my own observations. I think this is an issue that many "westerners" still don't understand and that is not talked about enough. I might add a few aspect to that explanation: The fact that the Nazi past was not really discussed in the GDR (there was no 68 movement and the state was officially anti-fascist, so the personal and indirect effects of the Nazi era were never discussed), the fact that the western Neo-Nazis started what can only be described as an infiltration campaign in the East after 1990, and the well-known fact that xenophobia is strongest in areas without foreigners. I am from Leipzig, pretty much a progressive and partially even leftist island inside Saxony (we get election flyers of the MLPD, just to give one example), and to be honest, I'm getting somewhat tired of having to excuse for my regional origin. Many Saxons do not vote for the AfD, but it is still quite strong in many rural areas and not all of that can be explained with structural reasons and not everything can be excused so easily. I don't really know how to solve this problem beyond the approach you mentioned, but I also know that just labelling everyone as an unsalvageable Neo-Nazi like some people do is not going to help. It's a very complex situation. Edit: Another aspect that I noticed while speaking with people who grew up in the GDR is the lack of understanding of and trust in democratic processes. I think one often overlooked mistake after reunification was that the western institutions and politicians more or less assumed that the Easterners would learn themselves to participate in a representative democracy as well as in a society dominated by liberal mentality ("sell yourself well", "you don't get anything unless you demand it", etc.). There wasn't an organised effort to draw them towards the democratic ideals, to create a genuine interest in participation. Instead, they were basically left alone - a serious oversight in my opinion, that could at least partially explain the low election participation and the high number of protest voters.
@@dekatalan8638 And what am I supposed to answer to you, when you say "my party"? Do you really think this discussion would be a productive one? As far as I am concerned, the AfD is a dangerous, anti-progressive, populist right-wing party with way too many connections to the Neo-Nazis and similar groups. I don't think we have anything to say to each other.
Leipzig is in general considered an outlier in the East, though - since they threw out Legida, hence making a clear stand against Nazis, while Dresden, Chemnitz aso didn't and always play the "we aren't all Nazi's card" if they are asked why they are allow the far right to freely march through the streets without any counter protests...I think that is what most people who play the "we don't vote all AfD" card overlook: Do a far right march in Berlin, in Cologne or even the Ruhr Area which does have an actual problem with immigrant criminality and therefore an excuse to at least listen to this kind of poison, and you can BET that there will be a strong counter protest. Not so in Dresden. And THAT is the point. It is btw no accident that Leibzig is the outlier, considering the rule the city played in the fall of the wall. You can't teach people democracy, they have to life it and be ready to fight for it.
As a German I think you've analysed the issue better than many of our broadsheets and mainstay media sites did. Although I would say that the economy is not the only issue, there is also a latent feeling of being overwhelmed with unselected immigrants that is esepcially present in areas where a lot of migrants are (temporarily) housed or where infamous crimes performed by immigrants happened.
its actually not like that at all. most afd voters live in areas with almost no migrants. they dont like them because they never met one. also: its not a feeling of being overwhelmed. its just blant racism.
@@carlosmarx2380o you live in Germany, are you "au fait" what is happening in the German government right now, or are you surmising and pontificating from abroad? Most Germans who are now sympathising with the AFD(quite a few lefties as well) are fed up with the energy policy plugged by the government which would cost them tens of thousands of Euros. A government which is brimming with plenty of utterly incompetent individuals who lack the necessary qualifications to do the job they have been appointed for. Many people in Germany cannot afford the required renovations of their houses to meet the "climate neutrality" standards plugged by the government and ask themselves what is going to happen to them if they cannot meet these standards. Will they have to flogg their homes to private investors, will they end up in rented accommodation? There is a great deal of uncertainty, anxiety amongst a wide swathe of the population. Those who tend to sympathise with the AFD, including plenty of newcomers, feel that their government does not serve the interest of the majority of the people. They also want to know what exactly happened as regards the Nordstream sabotage. They do not want to send more and more weapons to Ucraine not only because of the enormous cost this incurs, money that could be invested into their own country - but also because they want the senseless slaughter of people on the battlefields of Ucraine to stop The gap between the haves and those who are living pay check to pay check on a monthly basis is becoming wider and wider. At the top of German society a minority is accumulating immense wealth. Plenty of problems as regards the crumbling infrastructure. (train services,) they feel that their country is being demolished, whilst uncontrolled immigration continues with plenty of (badly qualified) refugees flooding into the country at a time in which Germany is facing a socioeconomic demise. They turn to the AFD now. Of course they are all extremely right wing, Nazis - according to the government and the German main stream media.
I really think the main reason the AfD raises is because there is just too much focus on that racist and anti-democratic elements in the party (which is why it is so dangerous) and to little focus on all the other issues this party manages to get the trust of the voters on. In addition to that, the other parties of the opposition (or possible opposition who don't even get enough votes) aren't doing a good job of displaying themselves as another alternative to these frustrated voters, and the CDU as former party of the government has a hard time to reclaim trust that was lost while they were in charge and the left wing party "Die Linke" - besides other problems - is still viewed as a party that could turn germany back to socialism. In essence: It doesn't help to reduce all conversation about AfD and AfD voters just to the racist part of it - although you also shouldn't ignore it - instead look at the problems the people really have. And yes, just as @carlosmarx2380 pointed out: Racism and xenophobia is higher in areas with less migrants. It is just human nature that you are sceptical of things you don't know well and something that you actively need to overcome by willingly open your mind and expose yourself to other cultures.
I personally thing racism and xenophobia happens when people don't mix. Immigrants can just be as racist and xenophobic as the natives if they're allowed to live separately, because with segregation nations within nations are being created meaning becoming a stranger in your own country is a possibility. Here in the Netherlands we've so many nationalities we can see what happens we can see those differences between people allowed to join society (or allow themselves in) and who not. Moluccans for example refused to join society, hoping the Netherlands is to establish a Moluccan Republic on Indonesian territory. That's not going to happen. They live in separate neighborhoods and if anyone non-Moluccan dares to buy a home in their neighbourhood, their windows get smashed, they receive death threats just as long until people flee. A similar thing can also be said of the Moroccans. People expected them to make money and then to simply return once there was no job for them like a sort of throw away product, because people are not happy they send money back home and they're not allowed to have a Dutch-level pension in Morocco. Berber Moroccans aren't the easiest persons, but if 2nd, 3rd generations aren't allowed to integrate, they see no reason to integrate here and in fact might look down on the Dutch tattas just as much as the Dutch look down on them. This creates a sort of Morocco Netherlands and a white Netherlands with free travel between the two. Native Dutchmen act like Moroccan machos and liberal Moroccans fed up of Moroccan culture getting "cheesed" (verkaasd). Both those Netherlandses have people of different immigrant backgrounds joining one side or the other. Mexicans, Syrians and Poles joining the Moroccan side while Chinese, Ukrainians and Surinamese (ethnic Ghanese, Indians and Java Indonesians) stick with the white side. It's complicated and segregation of peoples can only be prevented by government intervention by actively mixing all the people.
As an American observer, I find this quite informative! In short, the answer is that although the radical-right _AfD_ is gaining popularity, it might not be because it is radical-right, but because some Germans are tired of the other parties not addressing economic issues, like the "inflation, unemployment, [and] the wealth gap" mentioned at 11:59. Hence, if anyone from the large, moderate parties ever (somehow) manages to read my comment, I'd advise them to address these issues. After all, not only would the public benefit from a good solution to these problems, but a good solution would also make the _AfD_ seem less special. Thanks for the video!
You're right. The problem is that many people who are in charge of the governing parties don't really care about the German people and are driven by political ideologies instead. Those people won't change course. Others in those parties probably would, but the parties need some incentives to change their leadership. Catastrophic election results are a GREAT incentive.
I'm a mixed-race American (sometimes confused for a Turk or Arab) that has been living in Dresden for three years now, a city which often hosts AfD demos and had many anti-lockdown demos and so on. I've never experienced outright racism. Occasionally I've even seen AfD party stands set up around the city, which hand out fliers to literally anyone who doesn't seem angry to see them; I was surprised to be offered one, I saw asians offered some too and other people who may seem "atypical" for its voter base. While I imagine there may be some racist people here, I find the characterization of this part of Germany as a bunch of backwards, uneducated racists to be sad and insulting. In fact, I've come to find some people I've met from Berlin, with elitist mindsets to actually be more closed-minded than many of the people I've come to know here.
I have to tell you, but the AfD is not racist. That is a lie that is being spread to keep the opposition down. I myself am a gay man and in the AfD, because the party is not anti-gay either.
What if the party didn't move to the right, but the government to the left?...... In principle, the party program of the AfD has a good overlap with that of the conservative CDU 15 years ago.
As a German (with migration background) i also appreciate your take on this situation and in my opinion i have to admit that some solutions the AfD is offering are quite tempting such as abolishing the broadcasting fee, because in my opinion the publicly funded television never offered an attractive television program, even for my parents, who are in their late 50s and the rising fees are furiating. My parents experienced much more hostility against foreign people (i dont like the term racism) in their youth than i experienced, even though my family speaks german fluently. I am 27 now and never felt the need to vote because neither the afd nor any other party reflects what i really want. Even my parents don't vote anymore because they feel betrayed, regardless of whether they vote for the CDU, the SPD or someone else.
For communal elections, 60% isn't a low turnout at all, especially when considering that these elections were in eastern Germany, where turnout is usually especially low. On average, turnout in communal elections is between 45 and 50%.
All well worded and certainly true. Still it might miss an important angle: It's pointless to discuss if voters for a fascist party are themself fascist (or racist) or not, it's about what government their vote will yield. Neither time, place or reasoning does matter.
Die Entschuldigung von Nazis ist wohl auch nur in den Augen eines Nazis "sachlich". Und genau das macht das Video. es verharmlost und entschuldigt Leute, die für eine Nazipartei wählen.
That’s quite wrong I would say. Even the word Fascism is a bad thing nowadays, Fascists can’t say they’re fascists and any such policies have to be put under the guise of some other ideology. I would say it’s more “Germany lost the 2WW, the Fascists survived it”.
I wouldnt say ethnicy, but when you get a german passport and still claim that you're proud to be turkish, see germans who eat pork as subhumans and plan on building more mosks then i think that you shouldnt be here.... and it doesnt changes my feelings if a leftwing person explains to me that there are people that like to go to mallorca and act like animals while they're drunk. I'm living in the suburbs of Hamburg and the mess that is the citycore keeps spreading out more and more to our "peaceful area" and the younger people become more and more disrespectful. 2 weeks ego a old lady said to a very loud group of immigrants that they should be a bit more quiet. The "leader of the group" started to yell at her "WAS WILLST DU?!!?!?" and the situation almost escalated, because a 80-90year old lady said "could you please be more quiet?" because a group of 10 couldnt behave. The sad part is... i feel that part of germany views this as normal and sees the old lady as the problem?!?
@CB56__ Typical petit bourgeois fear of changes. I have lived for for years in the "problem" high immigrant district of Neukölln in Berlin, and never had a problem. Opinions like yours usually come from people who only read about those districts in the BILD, Sun or Daily Mail.
@@DreaMeRHoLic And now imagine that old lady having dark skin, or wearing a "Muslim" head covering, or speaking with an obvious accent. How do you imagine the typical "bio-German" group of Halbstarke would've reacted to her making that request? Or just generally. If you think that this is a new behaviour or only shown by immigrants, you're deceiving yourself and haven't been around German village youth for quite a while.
6:05 as the situation in the east is disturbing, what about the richest states: Bayern, Hessen and especially Baden-Wurttemberg?? What is going on there? If life is so great there, why there are some large areas in darker blue? Have they got "infected" somehow? I do not recall these part's to be ever part of GDR or to be recently challenged by the economic situation. It rather indicates, unfortunately, that some deeper problem is creeping around the country
BTW, even people in the GDR had a name for the area in which you could not receive west german TV: Tal der Ahnungslosen (valley of the clueless). And even if I hate to say it, I'm with Mr Gauland, because the established parties don't offer any solutions to the problems at hand and seem follow the principle to sit out issues. And in such cases, the ones that play the instrument of our emotions best will win. I definitely have to say, even though I am totally uninterested in voting and I am in that 'my voice doesn't count anyway' mode, I still make a point of not making the absence of my vote count for a political movement that I cannot identify with. Hence I go and vote every time I can to vote for something I can get myself behind and that is definitely on the left side of the spectrum.
I've voted invalid for years after the last SPD-Green coalition because of the massive disappointment that was. But I do cast my vote for a democratic party now, simply to weaken the far-right. It's easy, it costs nothing, and it helps keep the fascists out of power.
Their rise has to be attributed to the inability of all other parties to get done what is wanted. Their role is to serve the people. SERVE. Yet all they seem to do is excelling in incompetence and dying on ideolocal hills that are not worth it. What we see is more important than what gets actually done. The feeling of things getting done is what gets the votes. Do your job, make the people happy and they will be happy with you in power.
Maybe an explanation from someone who most likely will vote the AfD in the next elections. I am from an immigrant family from a european country and my parents really wanted me to be integrated as good as possible, only speaking german at home, respecting and living the culture and rules of this country. This is not a hard task if you are willing to do it and it solely depends on YOUR character and respect for the country which allowed you to live in it. And so I will NOT accept people who aren't willing to do this while at the same time getting a lot of money from the state. I simply will not. So, the problem is not "all foreigners", but those from muslim and african countries. The people wanting stricter immigration policies aren't against the spanish, polish, french, english, japanese, chinese, ... because these nationalities haven't been anywhere near as problematic. Like, there is no comparison. There are many cases where Syrians, Arabs, Iranians, Africans are violent or harass women, and the amount of stabbings as of late is off the charts. It's not plain racism against muslims or africans, but experiences which lead to hostility. I myself as a teenager have been pretty open towards immigration from such countries. Ten years and some very bad experiences later I find myself to be full of resentment towards muslims and africans, which is not fair towards some genuinely kind people from these parts of the world, but it is what it is. I'll always be respectful towards respectful people, independent of their beliefs, though. Stupid politics by stupid politicians (open the gates in 2015, very bad integration plans and no sane or fair policies towards "good" or "bad" refugees) lead to many people being here which simply should not be here. I think some cultures just aren't really compatible. I've talked to many muslims - and I mean the faithful ones, not the integrated turkish guys who eat Schnitzel and drink beer - and their worldviews and their views on the west are agonizing. "If we have enough muslims in europe, we could implement sharia laws", "If I could make the rules then I would forbid being gay", "Women should not be allowed to wear skirts" or "I don't like democracy and laws here, but I guess I'll tolerate them" are sentences I've been baffled by not only once. Please believe me when I say that. I wish these thoughts were not as common amongst the muslim population as they really are. The guys saying that often were very nice towards me, but in their core, they all think people who make satire of Mohammed should be killed. Many just say they wouldn't be the one to execute the person - this is what is called being a moderate muslim. The list goes on. And then parties like die Grünen or die Linke applaud islam and demand tolerance for muslims, all the while islam isn't compatible with any "progressive" worldview at all. I do have to admit the AfD is full of idiots (Proleten!), but it is the only party that really wants to do something about these problems. As soon as the CDU shows that they want to tackle the same problems, and really pull through with that, the AfD will no longer get over the 5% mark since they would pretty much lose their only unique selling point. I'd be really glad to not have to vote these guys anymore. But for now there is no other option.
I agree. I was born in Germany and I never had a problem with foreigners, until I was faced with more and more direspectful behaviour and crime. 15% of the people living in our city center came to Germany seeking asylum, violent crime and sexual harrassment is in the news every week. People avoid certain parts of town when it gets dark because of how many bad things happen there. Shops are struggeling because customer's don't show up. I was in the city center at night 4 times in the last two years, and two of those times we had to call the police. Add that to the fact that no established party takes any of the people's problems seriously, and you get what you have right now. Maybe people just don't like hearing that our health care system, schools, and infrastructure are getting worse and worse, while prices for everything are going up and the government spends billions on foreign aid. I'm not saying we shouldn't help other countries, and I am also not saying that we should not take any refugees, but I can see how many people get angry when everything is getting worse but the government ignores it. Most people don't trust the old parties anymore, because they kept lying about everything and making things worse for them. Even the more extreme left wing parties, that used to care much about social equality and worker's rights are now more concerned about refugees and gender than anything else, while looking down on the dirty working class. It is weird that we are so afraid of anything mildly right wing, while at the same time we openly welcome groups and religions that are actively against anything our democracy and society stands for. I work with people from different countries, my girlfriend is not German and non-white, I eat in foreign restaurants and buy in foreign shops. We don't hate foreigners, we just don't like it when they cause trouble. People always say that the AfD offers simple and fast solutions to complex problems, but how does that make them different from any other political parties? Is the green party going to save the planet by closing our factories and importing the goods from China instead?
In other words, your problem is based on race, not beliefs. That's literally a racist position. You're proving the point made by many people about you and the AfD.
I think one issue about the stereotyping is that it also harms those opposed to the AfD in the relevant areas. It sometimes feels as if your existence isn't acknowledged by people from other parts of Germany. You almost have to be happy if somebody digs up the "there's only far right and far left in the east" stereotype, because at least it covers a larger group of people
@@TheGoukaruma Yes, the CDU (in Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt) and the SPD (in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) did win elections in East Germany. Until large parts of the voting population there didn't feel that those parties still cared about their interests. ruclips.net/video/FmCcO5Bdv1U/видео.html is a somewhat famous example.
They are certain to get at least 5% everywhere they field candidates. Even if they didn't, it would change very little. The question for me is what happens if the AFD gets close to 50% in a state election, forcing every other party to enter a grand grand grand coalition.
@@perdbeer6713 The question is will the CSU get more than 5 % of the votes in all of Germany, which is difficult because they only field candidates in Bavaria. If that will ever become a serious threat, they will probably form some kind of election list agreement with the CDU so their combined vote share counts for the 5 % threshold.
@@Claudible They would need to find some kind of legal construct that allows the votes of CDU and CSU to be counted together as far as the 5 % threshold is concerned. There were discussions about it when the election law was changed this year. I'm not sure if it is possible under the current law, perhaps the law would need to be amended to make it possible.
0:35 I'm from the US, studied Germanistik university, was for a semester in 1989 at the Uni Mainz, and have kept up with German news [as well as trying to keep from losing my German language skills] by reading the FAZ online. When I try to explain to other Americans what's been happening in Germany, I always end up calling the AfD the, “Alternative for Deutschland … Deutschland über Alles.” I can't help myself, the last 3 words just kinda spill out. Because that's what they seem like to me, an American who's studied German, Germany, and German history, and what they've _always_ seemed like to me.
"FAZ" used to be a quality newspaper albeit sometimes too conservative. They have changed direction after Frank Schirrmacher´s decease. Don´t feel informed by reading it. I used to read my father´s FAZ from time to time. It´s become a promotion paper for the CDU, but linguistically it is still at the top and therefore good to improve your language level. Much better than "Bild" or "USA Today". Just look up the internet for the program of the AfD (Parteiprogramm) and make up your mind.
@@ruedigernassauer Yeah, I came across the AfD's Parteiprogram, like 10 years ago. And I found them rather repugnant. The thing is, the US Republican Party is actually _to the right_ of the AfD. As for the FAZ, I know that it's conservative, pro-business and [used to] have a pro-American slant to it. Which is why I started reading it, because if the FAZ was criticizing something my country was doing, I _knew_ then that we were really fvcking up! Also, I read it because, back in 1989 when I was studying an der Uni Mainz, the FAZ was West Germany's "newspaper of record" - the paper that tried to record historical events faithfully as they were happening. Kinda like the New York Times is/has been here in the US. "The 'first draft' of history," as the NY Times says. Is that no longer the case with the FAZ, and if so, which paper has become the "newspaper of record" for 21st Century Germany?
@@John_Weiss I do not know which newspaper can be called the newspaper of record. Probably none. I "read" the local newspaper in the company shared with others. The first part of it is non-regional news bought from AP, UPI, CNN and Reuter (that must be the list) and it is pretty biased and in favor of the German government. It is interesting what news do not get covered: The perennial conflict between China and Vietnam in the South China Sea (the Vietnamese East Sea), the background of the war in the Central African Republic (mostly immigrated muslims making up 10 % of the total population, but the majority in the capital, tried to install sharia legislation, a news bit I was told in Cameroon), the background of the Rohingya conflict in Myanmar. The Rohingya are ethnically and linguistically Bangladeshis. They were brought there as locals refused to work for British colonists. After excessive procreation and slaughters of buddhist monks and after settling on half of the coast line and a fifth of the country surface Myanmarese have started to repel them. No news coverage of this former jihad is done so that people think that muslims are oppressed and buddists are evil. That much said, the news people today are afraid to report the truth about China or Islam (just read the Quran and you will see how "peaceful" this religion is). --- So the local news interest me most of my local newspaper. It covers construction (in Germany nowadays mostly conversions of existing buildings) and death announcements.
@@John_Weiss I had to correct my answer: I meant Central AFRICAN Republic. I first wrote Central American Republic (which specifically isn´t existing).
How do you MEASURE how "far" some party is to the left or right? How do you DEFINE "left" and "right"? Do these DEFINITIONS have maybe changed, so the subject to be measured is now on a different spot on the scale without even moving themselves?
The "left" emphasizes class struggle, while the "right" emphasizes ethnic struggle. So (for example) strict enforcement of visa regulations is moderate right-wing, classifying all Muslims as potential terrorists is extreme right-wing.
@@rewboss Have you looked at multi-dimensional political metrics such as politicalcompass (2 axis) or politicaltest (6 axis). Ideally you would need to have as many axis as there are political issues (so confusingly many), any reduction to fewer is a simplification. I'd argue that 1 axis is an oversimplification, even the 2 axis of politicalcompass are quite coarse. Their axis are: left-right = communist - capitalist up-down = authoritarian - libertarian Interestingly the authors of that website classify all current German parties (except the Left) in the right-authoritarian quadrant. In essence that means they are much more similar to each other than they pretend, and that we have right-authoritarians who admit to it, and other right-authoritarians who pretend to be something else. I agree with that summary. Of course it also means that the Afd isn't really an alternative, but also that all the others are throwing stones in glass houses.
@@rewboss _"The "left" emphasizes class struggle, while the "right" emphasizes ethnic struggle."_ No. Class struggle is a mar xist idea and therefore far-left. Ethnonationalism on the other hand doesn't have a political alignment by default. Last time it was practiced by another socia list and collectivist regime, Hi tler's.
@@rewboss _"classifying all Muslims as potential terrorists is extreme right-wing."_ No. That's just having a prejudice against muslims. Not a political stance.
@@Historia.Magistra.Vitae. Hitler is classed as right-wing because his National Socialism replaced the idea of class warfare with that of ethnic warfare. He did take some left-wing principles and fused them with fascist ideas to create the Frankenstein's monster that was National Socialism, but its strongly xenophobic and antisemitic streak is what prompts historians to class it as right-wing. Marx was a bit on the extreme side when it came to the need for the working classes to overthrow the capitalist classes, but the basic idea that inequalities in wealth and power are a root cause of certain problems is common to more moderate left-wing movements as well. This is why the moderate, mainstream left is more likely to argue for a tax regime that redistributes wealth from the richest to the poorest; the mainstream right is more likely to argue that wealth inequality is inevitable but can be harnessed to the good of society (e.g. supply-side economics, a.k.a. "trickle-down").
I‘d like to add that there have been tremendous efforts made by our government to solve the pressing issues. I think it is a little simple, to just claim the parties simply can‘t agree on anything. Granted, it‘s hard to imagine what could have happened in the past year, were it not for government action. But let‘s not forget that there is an ongoing war in Europe which is the main source of Inflation. We have just come out of a pandemic too. Times are not easy! But inflation could have been much higher. All of us were able to heat our homes in winter, energy prices have dropped again, butter is much cheaper than a couple month ago, almost every single German recieved a payment of 300 or 200€ by the government. Efforts have been made to cut the cost of transportation, i.e. deutschland ticket…. Let‘s not fall into the trap of populists and subscribe to the idea that ‚NOTHING has been done‘ or ‚EVERYTHING is getting worse‘. It‘s not. But its part of the truth, that no government will be able to simply erase all the challenges that war, pandemic, climate change etc. are bringing onto us.
"tremendous efforts made by our government to solve the pressing issues" Please tell me you're joking "But let‘s not forget that there is an ongoing war in Europe which is the main source of Inflation" The main reason of inflation is the trade sanctions imposed by our government, not the war itself. "We have just come out of a pandemic too" The main reason for its disastrous consequences is the lockdown policy of our government, not the pandemic itself. "All of us were able to heat our homes in winter" The main reason it's in question at all is the trade sanctions imposed by our government. "energy prices have dropped again" They rose due to the actions of our government. "butter is much cheaper than a couple month ago" It rose due to the actions of our government. " almost every single German recieved a payment of 300 or 200€ by the government" To soothe the consequences of their own actions. In the long run they'll do far more damage than that.
Well, to be fair, it is hard to deny the "Everything is getting worse." claim, given issues like climate change, rising inequality and ubiquitous inflation.
I was also Not satisfied with his conclusion. You can’t just wish problems away. There are always problems. It’s not justified to vote for fascists and most people clearly know who they are voting for.
I am neither German nor do I have any connection to the right-wing political camp, I am in a political center party in another country. Nevertheless, of course I thought about the political developments in Germany and came to the conclusion that it is not because of the AfD that so many people are more likely to choose this party, but because the other parties have failed. It is due to the high corruption of the German left and center parties, their unworldliness and duplicity that these parties themselves are responsible for the loss of voters. One can imagine that if someone feels betrayed, they automatically support another political camp that seems more trustworthy and also keeps their election promises. After that, it doesn't even matter to people whether a party has ever been in power and has proven that it has fulfilled the election promises, because if the others have not kept all of them, it still seems logically a better one solution to choose the "newcomer". With regard to the abolition of broadcasting fees, however, I also believe that they should be abolished. I pay license fees myself, I don't even watch TV myself, and I haven't used my radio for a long time. The only reason I have to pay fees is because I have an internet connection, even though I don't watch any public broadcasts. I already pay separately for the paid streaming services I use. This is an unspeakable injustice that must be stopped. I also have no interest in supporting state media, some of which are also used for propaganda purposes, even though I live in an officially neutral country. I decide what I want to see and I'm willing to pay for it if it's really worth it, which I don't think is the case with state media. To be honest, I think that these state broadcasters would have to switch to a subscription model with encryption, just like various private providers have done, because this is the only way to distribute costs fairly, which people do not use the said services unfairly burdened with costs. It is also the case that I can cancel monthly with pay channels if I no longer like the service or I have already seen everything. In addition, I don't have to see any advertising with these services, unlike the state ones. Advertising, along with fees, is another source of income for the state media, not to mention the additional subsidies paid out by the state to these state media. In my opinion, subsidies should also be abolished as a matter of principle, because subsidies distort competition, convey a false picture of reality and also represent cross-financing, which is fundamentally prohibited in all other economic sectors.
You decide what you want to see and are willing to pay for it. And they will give to you what you want to see. Not objective news. That’s why I also love the Schulpflicht.
I really despise populism from both fringes. But I am especially concerned about the biggest and publicly funded German broadcasting network shitting on the population of an entire state or calling all people voting for a certain party "Nazis" or "extremists". I think it's a given that laughing in the face of those people who are actually really concerned about their livelihoods will backfire. The question is just how and what will it cost the rest of German society? All in all great take, although I disagree with calling the entirety of the AfD party "Nazis". It's the same dangerous populist game that Böhmermann is playing on his ZDF show. It's gone so far now that the entire tax-funded "funk" network doesn't invite AfD members as interview guests on any show. Cutting communications with your most extreme political rivals is the worst decision you can make in a democratic society.
" calling all people voting for a certain party "Nazis" or "extremis" what the hell else would you call someone who votes for a nazi party? "All in all great take, although I disagree with calling the entirety of the AfD party "Nazis"" why? that is literally what they are. if there is a party of 10 people and they allow 1 Nazi in, you don't have a party of one Nazi. you have a party of 11 Nazis. as long as the AfD allows nazis in their party, every single AfD member aswell as every single person voting for them is in fact a nazi. " It's gone so far now that the entire tax-funded "funk" network doesn't invite AfD members as interview guests on any show." and? nazi parties are illegal by the Grundgesetz. in fact, the only real issue is that the Verfassungsschutz has not closed the party down. but forcing media to give a plattform to nazis is definitely not the right way. "Cutting communications with your most extreme political rivals is the worst decision you can make in a democratic society." no. the worst decission you can make in a democratic society is to allow a party that opposes human rights, the democratic system and the constitution to exist.
It's ironic considering the biggest and most loudest political demographics who habitually label their opposition as Nazis and extremists have in fact much more common with Nazis than anyone else.
With mass emigration and the constant dilution of European countries identity and customs over the last 10 years the pendulum was bound to swing the other way..
So rn. Looking at the newest numbers for the "sunday question" the AfD was at second Position with 20% of all the votes of the people. Only the CDU is before them. With 28%
You did an extremely poor job of explaining how the party is “fascist”. I haven’t heard of the AFD censoring political rivals, however it seems like the opposition to the AFD is trying extremely hard to censor them…
@@ruedigernassauer That’s anti immigration, not fascism. There is nothing wrong with taking a stance against immigration. Especially when said immigration is coming en masse from mainly Muslims who are committing vastly more crimes in the country.
I can't really agree this time. In the East, there's always been a tendency to vote for extremist parties, right now it could be more than 50% for extreme left or extreme right parties ("Die Linke", AfD). Who are both anti-EU, anti-NATO, pro-Russia and simply ignoring the new reality in Europe after Russia attacked Ukraine and threatened the West, also ignoring economic basics. A recent opinion poll also showed a stunning misconception of democracy in Eastern states. A couple of weeks ago or so, from my memory: *Q* 'What is the Government supposed to do in your opinion?' *A* 'Carry out what I personally demand - even if it's illegal or violates the constitution" got *more than 70%* These are my own words, maybe someone has the source ... So, those people think that democracy is *only* about majorities, elections, maybe referendums on specific topics, and *not* about democratic values, *universal* human rights, rule of law and an independent justice system, free press, protection of minorities (and all the other stuff), and the constitution of course (which is not a bad one BTW). In decades they failed to understand or learn that democracy is about tolerance, and compromise. As you may have guessed, I live in the West. And most of my political life I've been frustrated (to say the least). I almost never got the government that I voted for. Still, I'm a fan of the German democracy. Although ... during the dark period of Kohl's reign I felt like living in a dictatorship. For me, it didn't make a difference if Kohl came to power through a coup, or if there actually were elections every four years ... if the majority keeps on voting for the wrong party or person in your personal opinion, it's still a democracy.
If we look around, in the East, other 'new democracies' show similar tendencies. Poland, Hungary seem to embrace the same ideas. Anti-democratic, xenophobic parties/leaders win elections. Repeatedly.
Democracy is not just majority rule, but also universal human rights and the rule of law ... Do you not see the irony? That is precisely what the opponents to the covid policies argued.
@@xaverlustig3581 No irony there. Those anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers were selfishly trying to spread a deadly disease. Disregarding the right to live of the rest of the population which in turn is guaranteed by the constitution. Ignoring science is okay if you don't jeopardize the lives of others. Then the rule of law and the constitution kick in.
PS "in decades they failed to understand democracy" There's something you fail to understand. If the majority of East Germans didn't understand democracy, the communist regime would still be in place. It was the East German people who brought it down, because they wanted democracy. Besides, we're now in 2023. Anyone below 40 has at best faint childhood memories of East Germany, or none at all.
Yeah, with the difference that in Germany the far-right wingers from the Conservative Party can form their own party and after a few years win local elections. In the U.S. system they drag the entire Conservative Party down with them.
Most of the people aren't even able to look beyond those party-issues. And the "Mistaktes of the other parties" (which isn't exactly wrong) are not mistakes at all and to realize this you need to look much much deeper in the system. The extremists already took over.
"Democratic parties", that widely used framing. Will the AfD abolish democracy when in power? A new party in Germany is either Nazi or communist or nihilist. If you´re willing to go with that you´ve already lost.
Like you, I’m a dual national-British and German. The difference between Germany and Britain is that if the Fascists in Germany may be making some sort of increased (weak) impression that, in the face of German history, they could never again gain real traction…..in Britain they have NEVER gone away! I (still) have the misfortune to live in England….and I can assure you it is (and always has been) infested with Fascists, Racists and Xenophobes. When I visit Germany, which is quite often now, the feeling of Right-wingism is mild compared to the UK. Evidence? Look no further than Brexit….for a start! Look at the scale of the cynical scapegoating of a few thousand hapless refugees and asylum seekers turning-up on the British south coast. But, you are correct though…..Never write the popularist Right-wing off as “mad” or “insignificant”.
~ 5:00 - Exactly. Voter base for extreme right is far more "disciplined" and likely to turn up to vote. (Up to a point this holds even for moderate right).In my Croatia, voter turnout is an excellent predictor of success of social democrats and independents.
@@pauldirc.. It's all about illegal migrants who come because they can get money to live in Germany without working. Working people are urgently needed and they are welcome, no matter where in the world they come from. especially craftsmen
As someone who was born, grew up and lives in a rural part of Thuringia where support of the AfD is also pretty high I can say that racism and xenophobia (as well as homophobia and transphobia) is pretty high throuout all age groups. Older people are a bit more extreme in regard than younger people, but there isn't that much of a difference. Every time you go to any kind of village festival here you can hear people say the most racist sh*t and when you call them out on their stuff and point out things that are just plain wrong you are painted as "one of them". That's an extremely dangerous way of thinking and actually scares me. You can even see Neo-Nazis walking about without any shame at these festivals. There was a school festival this week in my former Realschule and there was a guy with a shaved head and a Thor Steinar T-Shirt walking around and nobody was bothered by him. It's even in my own family. My mom was at a concert yesterday and in front of them there was a lesbian couple and she told me how bothered she was by them, just for being lesbian. Every time my parents watch TV and two men or two women kiss they loudly proclaim their disgust. I really hate how deep seated this whole sh*t is here. I love my family, my village and the general area I live in, but this really makes it hard for me to enjoy living here.
Thank you! While I'm not from the East, I do think the often heard argument "but 70% didn't vote for the fascists" doesn't hold much water. The 30% that do feel comfortable doing so because the 70% don't stand up against it enough.
@@moenchii ask them their definition of normal? And even if it isn't "normal" in their view, point out that they aren't harming anybody, they are showing love.
Many thanks to Andrew for these insightful explanations 👍 Not saying anything said were wrong, however there's some aspects also to be considered IMO - In Germany, there's two party blocs you can vote for: The non-wokes (AfD) and the wokes (all others) 😅 In "unspoken" local definition, "woke" additionally to the usual means agreeing to the open-borders migration policy introduced by Mrs Merkel in 2015: Everyone, regardless of whether there's an actual conflict in their country or whether there's other secure places they could go to instead, can de facto come and stay for as long as they please - the asylum claim of many will be rejected; but this doesn't mean a thing in most cases, hardly anyone gets deported even after having been convicted of even multiple serious ćřïmėś, let alone for "only" being in the country ïłłëgàłľý 🇩🇪 NB this isn't about actual war refugees from Ukraine who are mostly women and children anyway (also because their men aren't allowed to leave the country, to have enough of a reserve to draft from); but young men mostly from MENA, mostly Muslim, mostly very un-woke ironically, with mostly anti-feminist and hómõphøbïć views and with about 70% illiteracy in their Arabic mother tongue who thus aren't easy to teach English or even German, from a viewpoint of a perspective to integration into society and employability. German law says they have to be provided with the same allowance as a citizen of the country on the dole (ie. they get three times as much as eg. in France), meaning most of those coming into the EU will go to Germany and nowhere else; thereafter, to be to a large degree unemployed (together with their families they're allowed to bring), often bored and sometimes, ćřïmíńáľ 🤷 (knife àťțàćkś, řápėś and other vïøłėńćë including mùřďëř increasing heftily since 2015 - you can look it up yourselves or ask the Swedish) To be fair, when coming as self-professed refugees, people aren't really supposed to work as they're not considered immigrants but "guests to shelter" - some will have some inofficial "side hustle" like ďřúğ ðëàłïńğ, earning notority with the police who have to act cautiously in order not to be accused of řàćïśm 👮♀️ So here, I see the fault to a great extent on sides of German regulations attracting people that are sure to be disappointed; facing a life in one of those countries and given the chance to instead live in Germany, I would be doing the same as those adventurers just taking their chances (except for committing any crimes 😉) Apart from social costs, the monetary bill for those who come (about 80% no genuine refugees if you exclude Ukrainians, but immigrants into the social system by another name), i.e. their doles, health insurances and later, pensions, have to be footed by the German tax payer of course; a recent report showed around 50% of persons receiving unemployment money in Germany, often long-term, to have a foreign nationality 💸 If, as a German, you're not happy with the above state of affairs, voting for the AfD is your only hope for change. (In spite of some unsavoury characters in there, in addition to most in the party being normal people who in countries like Poland would be considered conservatives) All other parties want the "come one, come all, come to stay" laissez-faire border regime to remain the way it has been for quite a while now also in the upcoming years - don't take my word for it, feel free to go and ask representatives of theirs or find some clear and credible assertion to the contrary online 🗿
in 5:55 and follwoing you explained the east-german-identity-effect. a second importaint effect is the east-german-exodus effect: after the opening of the innergerman border masses of east germans migrated to west germany. so manny in fact, that pople in east germany on average are even older than in japan (being the oldest country on earth). those seeking oportunities tended to leave. the frustrated tended to stay. the frustrated tend to vote afd or not to vote at all.
I AM one of those who will vote AfD at the next opportunity, and I can explain to you why. In the last 20 years there has been a general shift of all traditional parties to the left. The CDU (which used to cover the right spectrum of voters) has shifted to the center and is almost indistinguishable from the SPD (which used to cover the left spectrum), which has also shifted to the center (or stayed left or God knows what - nobody knows what they stand for anymore). The Greens have become a socialist party at its worst: their staff consists mainly of people who have never learned a trade but have a clear agenda (i.e. saving the world from CO2, at any cost!) and want to turn this country into what Talmon called in 1952 a "messianic democracy" (a kind of "we no longer play by democratic rules because we know better than you what is best for you"). Nevertheless, all the traditional parties are willing to form a coalition with them in order to gain power. If you want to make sure that you end up with a government without the Greens, there is simply no alternative to voting for the AfD. Just to give you an idea of how screwed up the situation is in Germany today, the Greens have declared (and the other parties agree) that voting for the AfD is "undemocratic". Holy shit, politicians telling us what we can vote for? It reminds me of a famous poem by Bertold Brecht about the East German uprising of 1953, which goes: "After the uprising of June 17th / The Secretary of the Writers' Union / Had leaflets distributed on the Stalinallee / Which stated that the people / Had squandered the confidence of the government / And could only win it back / By redoubled work [quotas]. / Would it not in that case / Be simpler for the government / To dissolve the people / And elect another?" The Greens claim that right-wing extremism is on the rise. The reality is that we fear being swallowed up by neo-socialism !!! N.B. I voted for the Greens for more than 20 years. They seemed to me to be the only honest ones among all these corrupt politicians. Boy, was I wrong!
@@duellinksantimeta7636 Und da ist es wieder, das gute alte Märchen vom ansteigenden Rechtsextremismus. Klar, wenn man jeden zum Rechtsextremisten erklärt, der anderer Meinung ist, DANN haben wir einen deutlichen "Rechtsruck". So haben wir ja schon Corona erfolgreich bekämpft. 🙂
True, the Green have lied to their voters before the elections: "No arms into conflict zones." -- and they say yes to arms deliveries to Ukraine. So much for pacifism and "swords to plowshares". Now they are having the forest chopped down for windmills and plan to build a harbor for liquified natural gas in the natural reserve of Rügen. So much for ecology. And in economy they totally suck. The new generation Greens suck completely, these broken up students with no way back to the economy. I used to take them as honest. I once gave them my proposal for a better organization of public transport in the river Sieg valley without increasing costs. I later found it in their program! -- Let´s see how the AfD, once in power, will become the next "FDP" (wishy-washy party with members glued to their chairs). But I´ll give them a chance and, no, by as much as I know they are not fascists or nazis.
Thank you so much for your very accurate analysis! I would like to add a few comments: • In Germany, there has been a fairly stable 20% share among voters who vote right-wing or far-right for decades now. So far, we have mostly been lucky that the right-wing parties have been so divided and fragmented that they have mostly stayed below the 5% hurdle. Election successes for far-right parties also occurred long before the AfD and its most successful election in 2018 - in the 1960s, even the openly far-right NPD managed to enter the state parliament of Badem-Würtemberg with up to 10%. • the distrust that East Germans often have of the mainstream parties (Greens/SPD/FDP/CDU/CSU) is not exclusively due to the negative experiences made after reunification. 40 years of Soviet-style socialism have also contributed to the general distrust of governments. This is also the reason why DIE LINKE still enjoys a certain amount of support among the older population in eastern Germany. But among younger voters, who were born after reunification, DIE LINKE is more likely to be seen as the successor to the socialist SED. Unlike in West Germany, where DIE LINKE tends to be seen as a protest party, this special east-german historical relationship makes it a no-go among protest voters in East Germany - that's why they preferredly vote right or even far right. Overall, I definitely see a growing danger from right-wing populism for democracies _worldwide_ In times of social upheaval, insecurity grows in large parts of the population. And everyone should have noticed by now that we are living in such times: • Climate crisis • migration • Change in the geopolitical balance of power (USA/China/Russia/India) • War in Europe Although the challenges are complex and multi-layered and there are no easy answers, people tend to choose easy solutions and explanations, especially when they conveniently present a Scapegoat to put the blame on. No wonder right-wing parties are on the rise worldwide.
This is true, since many decades right-wing parties in Germany rose and fell but have a constant share of voters, NPD, Republikaner, DVU, AfD. So the popular argument so often used that right-wings are rising is simply not true.
Sorry, if this was happening some 15y ago, I would agree with your assessment. But the re-unification happened 30y ago, and as a matter of fact, the excuse to vote for fascists out of the frustration that was witnessed a generation ago is unacceptable. AfD voters are mostly frustrated with the fact that we left the 50ies half a century ago. Its strength seems to be the result of a general shift we see towards a change in what is seen as okay and what isn't anymore. Be it in language or in the current shift to renewable energy. The ignorance of our government, which misses every opportunity to bring people on board, adds to this. The most recent example is the idiotic discussion about whether people with an income of more than 150k € annually should be excluded from governmental parenting aid. The largest opposition party (CSU) and a part of the governing coalition (FDP) consider this interestingly as an assault on gender equality - btw, the same parties are fighting against quotes for females in leading positions and consider governmental aid for lower incomes as an attack on the principle of performance as the main source of income...
by what metric did you determine that reunification was long ago enough now? Are we gonna pretend the effects of that don't still echo throughout society?
@@Exgrmbl The effects are in parts still there, sure. But it's not like there aren't parts of the Ruhr area that went through similar or worse economic upsets. It is simply no excuse to vote for fascists.
What I find fascinating about that map at 6:18 is that you can also barely see where the American, British and French sector where? Apparently teh US is really bad at weeding out rightwing populist and near fascist tendencies not only back home but also when they implemented the "Persilschein" in the aftermath of 1945! The ex-British and the ex-French sector are way more cleaned up of such radical thoughts and fascist tendencies. Granted the French did not as good a job as the British, but they certainly did way better than the US and we know from historical documents that the USDDR aka Soviet Union actively build on Nazi agencies and employed them in their structures, often even adapting Nazi agencies and the dreaded Stasi was filled with Nazis in their ranks, especially the higher ranks, so there's that I suppose?
On paper, academic excellence is still highly regarded, but ultimately financial power does win. Though academic excellence can be a factor in gaining financial power, it isn't a certainty. On the other hand, people doing manual labor do have a slim chance of getting wealthy through legal or illegal means.
Well thought out video. Its true, AfD voters are not all Nazis... but they vote for Nazis and I don't know whats worse actually. (I very much acknowledge the various issues, problems, perceived humiliations etc those people face now and faced in the past, but there is simply no excuse for voting in Nazis to political power.)
Okay, but today in the information age, no one can say they didn't know what they were voting for or what methods populists use. Everyone knows about the history. And those who vote for Nazis or Nazi sympathizers out of dissatisfaction need not hope for my understanding. I am not particularly satisfied with the government's work at the moment either, but I have too much sense of responsibility than to vote for Nazis just to send a message. Voting for Nazis is like shooting the pilot on a plane in protest because you didn't like the food that was served.
But what are desperate people trying to feed their families supposed to do when all the mainstream parties have failed them? Nobly sacrifice themselves and watch how they and their friends get poorer while the politicians' friends get richer? Yes, people know the history, but they can't afford to worry about that now. There is a party that promises to keep them fed and protect them in the future so that nothing bad will happen to them, who do you expect them to vote for?
@@rewbossthis is a party that is not going to be a part of any solution. Plus, it really is an egregious misrepresentation to claim that the current government has not done anything about the problems. Maybe they could have done more, except ... _cough FDP cough_ ...
@@rewboss The issue here is that they willingly and knowingly support a party that spouts racism and anti-democratic demagogy. If you vote for them, you cannot ignore this and you cannot pretend you didn't know about this. The fact that you didn't see another true alternative[sic] doesn't water down the fact that with your vote you willingly support a fascist party.
After being called a fascist-worst-than-hitler Nazis for years for speaking about their problems and issues and no one listening to them, but only disregarding them as "stupid nazis", I'm pretty sure most people just don't care anymore. "If that's what they call right wing, then might as well be". Compare the AfD election program with that of the NSDAP and one from the CDU/CSU 30 years ago and please tell me how the AfD is literally the Nazi Party. There just isn't a proper conservative party in germany anymore, even the CDU has merged with the other typical coalition parties and if the CSU dares to say anything, they are instantly disregarded as nazis again. This whole situation is no wonder to me.
@@viveladecadence And so the fact that they are now willing to vote for such a party is a measure of how bad things have got. It's easy to just set them up as figures of hate, but that's not going to work. It's not reality, and they're just not going to listen to you. My idea is that instead of lecturing them and calling them Nazis, it might be more effective to make sure they don't have problems they can blame immigrants and foreigners on. If, for example, they have jobs, they can't complain that "foreigners are taking our jobs"; if their children can easily find an affordable apartment when they go to university, they can't complain that "refugees are taking our homes"; if a coherent package of policies to improve standards of living and social cohesion coupled with effective (not "repressive", I mean actually effective) helps bring down crime rates, they can't complain that "immigrants are stealing our cars"; if more effort is put into combatting ghettoisation, they can't complain that "brown people refuse to integrate". It's a bit of a no-brainer, if you ask me.
You sir, made a really good and objective analysis about this topic, even more objective than the ones from the public service broadcasting here in Germany, but there is a small flaw: The federal office for the protection of the constitution is bound by instructions from the Ministry of the Interior. The interior minister of Germany is at the moment Nancy Faeser. A woman that has written an article in a newspaper from the antifa and is therefore neither a good interior minister for Germany, nor a good superior for the federal office for the protection of the constitution.
i do agree with most of your points, but i think you look at it from an a bit naive perspective. You are a white (presumably not in any way queer) western guy. You will not have a lot of problems if the AFD takes over. If we look at countries like austria, hungary or poland, where parties like the AfD are now in gouvernment, i think we cannot look at this from your perspective. Sure, not every AfD voter is racist. Yes, it has a lot to do with poverty and the east-west divide. But i dont think we should, and i somewhat hear that from what youre saying, take that as an excuse for those peoples decisions. In the afore mentioned countries, the lives of non-western and even most asian immigrants are made worse in unimaginable ways. In poland they got "no-queer-zones". Queer people are beaten up by police, sometimes imprisoned for just existing. Not to mention the laws about trans healthcare that, not metaphorically but actually, are killing trans people. The idea to improve everyones lives is obviously good but, imo, is also just naive. The AfD will not go away if we do just that. They might even get stronger. What we need on top of that is strong societal and parliamentary opposition. And, if in any way possible, a ban of the AfD.
As an AfD voter I really have to ask you one question. What is more fascist: All other parties and most media trying to suppress the opposition as block parties or having normal conservative positions which the CDU also had 10 years ago but shifted left?
A party that actively tries and who agitates against queer people and other minorities, while the Group leader in Thuringia keeps saying shit that even the Verfassungsschutz classifies him as a far-right extremist, is in fact, more fascist
Schau mal nach unter Karl Poppers Toleranzparadoxon, dann weisst du auch warum keine demokratische Partei mit den dreckigen Faschisten kooperieren will.
@@OldBloxycube btw they actually have someone who is gay but that don't stop him to oppos lgbtq propaganda. everything after LGB is fake and are mental disorders
The main topic is a green/red cultural revolution in all aspects of social life and economics, only the AFD is in opposition to. Without this premise you can only come up with the wrong conclusions. While parties in charge deforming the constitution and openly working towards a undemocratic system like in china, because the end is near and we need fast centralised decisions, the AFD is promissing a direct democracy, like in switzerland. Yet they are called anti democratic, anti constitutional and even fashist. lol. The word xenophobic is part of this media campaign, because nobody in the AFD has a problem with foreigners who dont create problem areas and exploding criminal records. There is no viernamese paralel society within germany with vietnamese clan wars and daily mass rapings or thousands of vietnamese amok runners in the german streets. AFD gives a warm welcome to vietnamese people. Its a migration politic, where there is no living place for millions of germans even for me, and no money for support, but everyone else cries for more mass migration.Does this makes sense to you? All empty space wich was left is now occupied for ukrainians. The is no place left, no capacity. Meanwhile AFD is labeled trasphobic or whatever, but has a lesbian LEADER. wtf? ... is called antisemitic while running an own jewish organisation jews for AFD. Every word is brought to you out of context by the media and politics. This all is a dirty business to manipulate you, from all sites of the spectrum.
I also want to add on that current actions of the Traffic Light Coalition arent helping either. Like slashing social spending by 6% in a time when its more important than ever.
Great analysis! My humble contribution:: The rise of the AFD is in big part due to the fact that more and more people are unwilling/unable to aproach life realistically , which is a very dangerous development. Two examples: - They vote for "Die Grünen" or at least see them becoming part of the new government, but they cannot comprehend that then they are trying to put into practice what is in their party-programme! - They think that anything that goes wrong is fault of the current government, but the worst things happening are just beyond its sphere of influence. For instance, when greedy members of the boards of car-companies are ruining our reputation by cheating customers in the entire world manipulating the vehicle's emission-controls.
> - They vote for "Die Grünen" or at least see them becoming part of the new government, but they cannot comprehend that then they are trying to put into practice what is in their party-programme! Is the party progamme of the greens war and inflation?
@@fungo6631 I didn't say that all of them care about emissions. But they care about being sold an expensive BMW or Mercedes that turns out not to be what it appeared to be. And all the fuss and disadvantages that this will bring along...
@@geotropa1043 Wdym not what it appeared to be? If it had the same performance and features as advertised, I'm sure that they didn't give two fucks. I'm sure that those who really care about emissions weren't affected as they bought an electric car at the most.
There a a couple reasons why the AfD is attracting support (their energy policy & anti-immigration stance), but I think the chapter on stereotyping explains part of the problem. Rather than refuting the AfD, they just get called buzzwords. The AfD is enjoying popularity because it's the only party expressing (coincidentally) alternatives.
no. They are not the only racists in germany. And the LINKE is also supporting Putin.
Nuclear power is no alternative, so isn’t any fossil energy source.
@@hansberger4939 stop yapping
"they just get called buzzwords"
I am not sure what you mean by that.
Of cause there are a lot of good reasons why the AFD is called a fascist or right-extremist organization. But its just pretty hard to name all the hundreds of different examples of it in every discussion.
To say, the people vote for them, because they "just" want another stance on immigration, even if they are not really fascists, is like saying, this people are dumb and have no clue about how far right the organization they are supporting actually is.
One third of the members are actual extremists
two thirds of them are naive and blind followers
@@kasetoast8354there’s a lot of evidence to provide that AfD is indeed quite far-right; look at the Höcke faction, and some of its members were documented to have received funds by the Russian government. It’s something that doesn’t make sense.
Communist Vietnam was considered a close friend of East Germany. In fact, meeting Vietnamese people used to be part of the daily lives of many East Germans. That may have contributed to the effect your Vietnamese friend has observed.
What? Ever heard of Rostock-Lichtenhagen, August '92?
@@christiankastorf4836 In the build-up to the ’92 attacks, local neo-nazis even went so far as to publicly side with the Vietnamese inhabitants in a newspaper ad.
@@Claudible I drove through Rostock that Sundy night, wondered about the many police cars and learned only the next day what had happened. That Monday was the first day on my job in "MVP" and I soon learned and understood how much especially young people, 12, 13, 14 years of age, were delighted about all that violence against "foreignerns", "strangers", and the like. Because there were no Turks, Arabs, Asians .. the little town were I worked those thugs then vandalized a Russian café or tearoom, following the principle "foreigner is foreigner". When we got a Korean girl in one of my classes "Ausläder 'raus" was scribbled on the blackboard the following day. I informed the headmaster and he did NOTHING, putting it into my hands, knowing that I was such a hated "foreigner" as well, being from the west. A few weeks later the Ministry of Education sent the form for an elaborate survey on "youth violence" and acts of racism and the like to all schools to be filled in carefully. Our headmaster had all of us come into the staffroom during a break, then held the paper in his hands, showing his contept for the ministry, took his pen, read the questions aloud and made the necessary crosses in our names, not even asking if one of us had a different or diverging answer. Everything was just fine and nothing to worry.
@@christiankastorf4836 Whoa, that’s beyond chilling. Sorry you had to go through all this.
never heard of it . can you explain please?
As an asian living in Saxony, I totally agree with the view of the vietnamese you interviewed. I'm gonna go further to even say that in my personal experience, I've experienced so much more racism in west germany. I used to have to travel a lot between Dortmund and Berlin while living in Leipzig. I get a racist remark from people almost every week in Berlin, even worse in Dortmund. Only had it once in my entire stay in Leipzig. The old people were always really nice. Perhaps ignorant and uninformed but never intentionally racist for the purpose of being an asshole. I completely agree that the young people are always the ones to be racist so far. But I'm going to say something controversial so bear with me here and keep in mind that this is just my personal experience, take it how you will. 9/10 times I as an asian get racism, it's almost always from either younger turkish people or young middle easterns, almost never germans. Funnily enough I have doubted my own bias for a while until I met my community of fellow asian friends and casually asked them about this. They said the exact same thing so it's quite hard to say that i just got "unlucky" when almost every other asian I've met say the exact same thing. We just shut up about it because it'll sound racist if we say it. Take that as you will. Again, not saying all of them are like this but when it keeps happening it's quite a given that I myself would start developing biases. Now comfortably living in Dresden where i pretty much feel safe most of the time.
Edit: Didn't expect so many people to be interested. Thank you for the civil questions and discussions. I'd be glad to discuss further about the topic :)
Sounds a lot like what some Jews are saying: The biggest offenders as far as antisemism in Germany is concerned are not Neo-Nazis, but Arabs.
Leipzig is pretty left wing. Don't go further south. I live in Zwickau. It's really bad.
In which districts do you hang around in Berlin, that something like this happens to you?
Leipzig is a left-liberal island
There is a similar phenomenon where virtually all homophobic and antisemitic attackers are of recent Turkish or MENA extraction, and a highly disproportionate number of sexual offences and general violent assaults as well. But there is a conspiracy of silence around these uncomfortable facts because to speak of them risks giving oxygen to some very unpleasant people.
The typical liberal "native" German's response when this sort of thing is brought up is something among the lines of "I don't think it matters to victims where their perpetrators come from" and a refusal to engage further. On the one hand this sounds reasonable, at least for any particular case.
But on the other hand it is an enormous abdication of any responsibility to solve a growing problem, and a growing sign of the longstanding failure of certain segments of the population to integrate. Couple this with the left-wing tendency to elide the rise in these sorts of hate crimes with incidents of anti-immigrant racism from "native" Germans (implying that the rise in all such incidents is due to white right-wing reactionaries on the march), and the further left-wing demand to permanently open the borders to am unlimited number of migrants from these areas, and you have a recipe for disaster.
60% turnout is actually pretty darn good for east Germany. There have been quite a few elections in the east in recent times when turnout was so low (sub 20%), that the quorum wasn't reached and district heads and mayors had to be elected by the councils instead of the electorate.
60% is actually average for most local west german local elections.
Local yes, but that's part of the problem. The continuous low turnout for the local elections is horrifying.
It probably wouldn't be possible but what if we had the Australian system, which forces everyone to vote?
@@cameroneridan4558 As an Australian, I’d like to point out that being forced to vote is antidemocratic.
@@djpaypal6596there should be some sort of incentive to make ppl go vote tho
@@gabrielmartins8483I disagree. If you have no idea about politics or simply don't care, then it's better if you don't vote than just pick a random party
@@cooljo5881 You guys don't have the white vote?
I know in France we have the white vote, you vote for: nobody.
As a non-German I appreciate your take on this situation. Very level-headed as usual.
As a German I second this.
*_Ich auch_*
As a German with foreign roots and someone who knows what Fascism is - its definition I cannot stand with this BS.
I can have a discussion with right wingers and in the end, not be of one opinion.
but with a fascist as in the Green Party, I cannot No discussion is allowed. The Green Party is an eco fascist movement, not a Democratic Party.
please do me the favor and look up the definition of fascism. Then check the Green Party and its connections to the so called green energy sectoe...
Maybe, just maybe you should think for yourself and not read in the papers, what to think.
Right now, in Germany, there is a psychological phenomenon going on. It is called mass formation. When this went on in Germany the last time it was called the Third Reich. Today we have the fourth industrial revolution, or the Fourth Reich.
@@wattsefakk9593
I have read the definitions of facism,
so should you.
I put them here for you.
Webster:
1) often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2) a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duden:
Bedeutungen (2)
1) von Mussolini errichtetes Herrschaftssystem in Italien (1922-1945)
nach dem Führerprinzip organisierte, nationalistische, antidemokratische, rechtsradikale Bewegung, Ideologie
2) auf dem Faschismus (2a) basierende totalitäre Herrschaftsform
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OED:
fascism n.
1 an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.2 (in general use) extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice. The term fascism was first used of the totalitarian right-wing nationalist regime of ...fascist n. fascistic adj.from Italian fascismo, from fascio 'bundle, political group,' from Latin fascis 'bundle.' ...
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the OED one is just an exerpt
@@wattsefakk9593 The video was not about the Green Party though.
4:35 This is inaccurate or at least misleading. For a Landratswahl 60% is actually unusually high. Just 20% aren't unusual. 60% is at the top end of voter turn out for this type of election.
Rewboss had little to gain and much to lose by speaking up like this. It's his channel, and his opinion. Don't like it, don't watch it. Hussah!
Thank you, that's very generous. :)
The issue with the "they're not nazis, they're just regular people/protest voters/concerned citizens or whatever" is that the nazis were also just regular people who were pissed off about the government and got enthusiastic when a guy came along who told them he could fix all the problems and punish the bad guys. The nazis were extremely racist and antisemitic but that wasn't all that unusual at the time. In the end one of the worst crimes in human history was blamed on "the nazis" like they were different from the regular german people. We should absolutely not assume that the AfD isn't that dangerous because their voters aren't all violent neonazi skinheads.
Using the term 'Nazis' vs the German population often implies that a 'Nazi' spaceship landed in Germany around 1929 ...
... whereas all the Nazis used to be regular Germans before they were radicalised. And there were way more Nazis than people today realise.
no, for sure not cause from the very beginning they were rambling and fighting through the street where you can find 100s of pictures from the earls 20s on, I mean 1920s
Please send us all the pictures you can find from german afd members fighting in the streets !
Have not seen afd here fighzin in the street.
And such comments are the best support of the afd who describe them intentionally false
therefore congratulations.
Mayor electionn is also a diffenrent thing than a party election.
If you think they're nazis, show us antisemitism and Führerprinzip in their party platform.
Wenn du die AfD wirklich so schlimm findest, mache folgendes Experiment: Vergleiche ein aktuelles AfD Wahlprogramm mit einem NSDAP Programm und einem Wahlprogramm von Kohl aus den 90ern. Bin mal gespannt, ob die AfD dann immer noch do schlimm ist oder doch nur etwas konservativer als heute üblich.
You are correct in your statement, that just because the voter demographic consists not entirely of right wing extremists, the AFD is not dangerous. And it is something to always bear in mind. But I also want to bring up that this statement slightly misses the point when it comes to the argument brought forth here.
Because this is not about if the AFD is dangerous or not. That is a fact. The issue is more about them poaching votes from frustrated members of society, because the current administration is either unwilling or unable to address their concerns. Just like in the last 20s/30s.
And in addition it doesn't feel like the current administration is even *trying*. It feels like they shrug and say:"Tough break."
No wonder people consider voting for the party who promises to fix things. Cause even if it fails, they at least did *something*
For the last roughly 15-20 years our country has had a very "slow and steady" attitude regarding government. Which is the safest but also the least progressive form. A lot of people wants our government to *DO SOMETHING* even if that something turns out to be driving off a cliff. I am not advocating for the AFD, far from it, but it certainly is no surprise why we are at this point again.
Great video! And I do agree that the main problem is incompetence of the "traditional parties".
CDU needs to reinvent themselves, since they are still lost without Merkel.
The funny thing is that Merkel wasn't a traditional CDU politician.
Good explained!
@@oerthlingMerz is. And he thinks that he is Merkel, although he is the exact opposite in almost every aspect.
The CDU needs to de-Merkelize itself and become a conservative party again. Many conservative voters I know express disgust at the current state of the CDU and think that party is now just another version of the Social Democrats. So they won't vote for the CDU, but for other parties they think are still conservative. The AfD being the most prominent of those.
@@oerthling "The funny thing is that Merkel wasn't a traditional CDU politician."
true, she came from the former east. And was one of the most popular politicians in the history of modern germany, because she was centrist-conservative.
I think one of the bigger factors is simply the problems with the mainstream parties.
CDU/CSU has been in power for decades and let many things grow into the problems they now are, and are unwilling to take responsibility. Not only that, but the corruption within the party has become a serious problem, which has blown up in their faces during Corona.
The SPD feels very passive and doesn't seem to do all that much despite them leading the coalition. They don't hold any solid position and are just vaguely center-left for the most part.
The FDP is going back on things they already agreed upon and criticise their coalition partners as if they were part of the opposition even though they already agreed to it. Either cooperate or don't be part of the coalition
The Grüne is unable to follow through on a lot of their ambitions, a lot of it due to the FDP, and them having to give up to get to a compromise looks very hypocritical. At this point, it seems like they support big companies destroying the climate but punish the common man with restrictions due to what they've been able to implement to a lot of people.
The Linke is as always infighting and a mix of radical ideas, the only thing going for them is that they're not really part of the establishment.
Meanwhile the AfD can mock and be derisive all they want, and can cherry-pick the topics that are easiest to gain support for
Shockingly accurate examination of the issue. Here in the US, I see a similar divide. While I am more of a left sided moderate, I can see why so many are on the far right. Many in that range are rural and society has become widely divided when comparing urban and rural religion status, education, career fields, traditions etc.. it’s like two completely different countries tbh. Top that with urban areas having most of the voting power, it’s a powder keg ready to go off. Rural life can be hard enough then feeling like they have no voice, no control over their towns and livelihood.. of course they are getting more extreme.
Well the US is 100% ideology driven while germans are not that stupid usually altough its rare to find people here who can be considered competent intelligent adults too.
The main reason for the AFD taking off is so simple bro: The current leaders are brainlets and have done nothing for us apart from making our lives more difficult and more expensive throught doubling down on insane policies incompatible with the real world.
The AFD promises to not be like them, thats all.
Lesson in this is.. GO VOTE! Even on “small local elections”.
Isn't 60% turnout pretty good for a local election?
It is.
This was handsdown the most level-headed political analysis of the current situation. Thanks mate!
Agreed. And coming from an immigrant. :-)
@@oerthling Where is he broadcasting from? Is he broadcasting from Germany, or England? Honest question.
And where is meant be an "immigrant" from? England to Germany? Or something else? All honest questions.
@@frenzalrhomb6919 Original Brit who immigrated to Germany decades ago (IIRC past videos)
HAHAHA are you actually serious?? this guy is not even aware what he is talking about, the fact he is calling the AFD nazis/fascists already shows he has no knowledge of political ideologies.
@@jaydenl.d8528 Oh they're assholes alright, and they are reminiscent of some Fascist Moments, but that's as far as it goes.
Just your run of the mill assholes.
There are a lot of defenses left.
Germany is a federal republic and a lot of powers are separated out to avoid anything being concentrated in any point of failure.
Zero elections in Germany since the war has resulted in a single party majority. The Union has won a narrow majority in the 50s, once. The Federal Constitutional Court can only be appointed by a two thirds vote in Parliament, and there are still lots of judges into their twelve year terms, and are very strict on the basic fundamentals of human rights. The EU is a part of the constitution and so it takes a two thirds vote in both houses of Parliament of Germany to leave. The military has a lot of restrictions as do the security services, lots of.laws on privacy, no doubt inspired by the Gestapo and the Stasi, corruption in Germany, while not absent, is way less common than it was in many other places, and bureaucracy obstructs rapid control over the civil service, as does federalism. The courts are strong and independent. Emergency powers are extremely strict in Germany, no doubt from the legacy of Article 48. There is no president who can seriously challenge the legislature the way they could in 1932, the legislators have immunity to protect them from intimidation, committees also have strong powers as does the minority of any committee to investigate and compel the truth.
Snap elections are very hard to carry out to gain power, the chancellor and all of the minister-presidents are protected by a constructive vote of no confidence that takes an absolute majority of the members of the Bundestag and can only be initiated by a quarter of the MPs. They all have a means to choose a chancellor by compelling a political solution in a way that makes it much harder to cause parliamentary chaos and gridlock.
The political parties all have important rules that make it hard to do stupid finances and compels transparency within the party and a ruling party has way fewer ways to compel discipline among themselves in an authoritarian manner the way Hitler controlled the NSDAP.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the legislature and courts can dissolve parties in a particular process for unconstitutionality and they have done this before.
There are way fewer points of failure that can create bad ideas and empower a single party over any others like the Weimar Republic.
There have been single party majorities in state elections, such as Bavaria with CSU achieving far over 50% uninterrupted from 1970 until 2003, with peaks over 60 even. Also West Berlin state elections where SPD achieved over 50% through 1960s, peaking over 60.
There is Artikel 20 of the German Grundgesetz, the German 'constitution' (I've put it in hyphens as there are still idiots who claim it is not a real constitution because it doesn't say so on the tin; however if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims and dives and flies like a duck, it is a duck). It contains several clauses that rigidly protect all human rights and any negative changes to those rights. What is interesting is that it states that all government is elected by the people, and all legislative is limited to the government; all executive and judicative are limited by laws and orders under the principles of the constitution.
Then comes article 20, paragraph 4. In this case it states clearly that EVERY German has the right to defend the ORDER of the constitution by ANY means if it is assaulted by non-democratic forces; if no other methods of defending the constitution is possible. This includes law suits, but also right up to public disobedience and even violence if necessary.
It has been called upon several times in the past, but none of those cases were deemed within the constitutional reasoning as no attempts were made to change these fundamental human rights. However, the AfD has proclaimed in their party's program certain intents to change several of these basic human rights from everyone to only SOME people. This makes them essentially NON-DEMOCRATIC which is also the reasoning behind the Verfassungsschutz / the constitutional protection agency why the AfD is considered an extremist, non-democratic party worthy of being investigated; potentially even banned, just like its predecessors the NVU and the NPD.
So if the government doesn't pick up the slack and seriously investigates the allegations of extremist right-wing activities in the AfD, then it becomes every Germans right to resist the AfD by any means. Yes, ANY means.
While this is a truly last case emergency resort, it is STILL a legitimate measure against a party that has declared multiple times its intention to remove or change the fundamental human rights enshrined in the first twenty articles of the Grundgesetz.
"Zero elections in Germany since the war has resulted in a single party majority. The Union has won a narrow majority in the 50s, once."
Zero free elections in Germany for a nation wide democratic parliament have resulted in a single party majority. Thus since 1848, not just since 1949.
Apart from the Union (CDU/CSU/DP) in 1957 with 50,2%.
@@martinstock and even in that election they didn't run the government alone.
6 months later: We should be MUCH more worried. 😱
I'm convinced that the 5% rule also helps to boost them. While in theory there are dozens of parties you can vote for, the reality is if you are a protest voter and your goal is to punish the "big 5", your vote will only actually achieve anything if you give it to a party that will finish above 5%. If your vote just ends up in the "others" group, you have effectively *supported* the parties that you wanted to punish. So the AfD acts as a big magnet for protest voters because if you vote for them, it's pretty much guaranteed that your vote will punish the "big 5".
My fear is that this will end in a situation like brexit where only after the damage has been done that voters realize "well yes I did technically vote for this party, but I did not actually want those consequences".
what a huge cope just because you can’t accept that the vast majority of European citizens and especially young men are turning right/far right.
Thanks! For the informative information.
And thank you for your donation -- I appreciate it.
@@rewboss the information provided an good understanding of different perspectives.
So you are only partially right ... as someone from eastern germany I have to say that xenophobic and racist stereotypes are very prevalent in the east and this through all age groups. Also when you check out statements from after the fall of the Berlin wall, when west german Neo-Nazis came to the east, the were incredibly surprised how many neo-nazis were already there and how well organized they were already, but this just as s side note ...
the main point is with the already existing attitudes, the toughening economic situation for many, and there it doesn't really matter, if you are well off actually, because it is about the perceived threat of economic decent, results in many people are being afraid or are already shut off from social success via fulfilling the check marks one has to fulfill as a successful citizen, to draw self-worth from them, like having a house, a well paid job, securing a good future for ones children etc. etc. etc. And under such felt threat, the only thing that cannot be taken away is ones "germaness" and this is what than results in an amplification of the already xenophobic and racist attitudes. Also the call for a strong leader who will clean up house. And I am afraid, once people are on that path, there is no way back for them, i.e., they are lost for good. So improvement of economic conditions would only keep more from sliding towards support of the AfD, but it is hard to believe to get many of the voters back. And especially it would not be possible to get them back by adopting the AfDs rhetoric, that would just legitimize the AfD even further, but this is sadly what the CDU/CSU is doing.
I agree that the problem here are the old parties, but I stay somewhat optimistic that the recent rise of the AfD is only temporary. We have seen it before, the idea of the AfD is way longer around, but under different names. In the 90s there was the DVU and they reached nearly 13% in Sachsen-Anhalt at one point... but then they fizzled out and got swallowed by the NPD. I think the AfD is here to stay, but unless they try to become more moderat, I don't see them getting into a gouvernment coalition.
Im under 30 and vote AfD. 😊 And the main Voter Support are 30-50 if the 60 boomers die there will be much higher support for AfD. 🎉 Culture war not even has started.
The AfD is the only anti woke Partie in Germany, so no i think the AfD didn't move right, any other big Partie move left.
But the Leader of the "Verfassungsschutz" worked for a communist paper!
So did you belivie a communist in the question who ist a Nazi?
I always saw it as a clear sign that the AfD couldn't profit of the pandemic.
Additionally, the AfD members are anything but homogeneous in their views, which has led to them spluttering before, and most likely will do again once many of them show their true colours.
@@BigTwitchy thats true, we have social demokrats, liberals, conservatives, but we didn't have neo Nazis. If we have them, why we hatte the NPD? The real Nazi Party?
Democracy is good until the result I don't like comes around. 🙄
Hi there, startup company from Saxony Anhalt here. We specialize in cloud computing and remote working ... I'm writing this because rewboss is right. Some of might've wondered if such a thing (high tech company in an East-German federal state) is even possible. Almost all of our employees are 30 or under and even we are very aware of this West-East conflict in people's heads. The patronizing, the teasing, and the overall smugness DID contribute a LOT to the aggressive self-pity of many older generations in this area. How can we solve that? By looking at each other on the same level. We are not better or worse, we are just human. Our two cents to the discussion. Thanks!
I have to say thank you so much for th ebit about "lazily stereotyping Saxons or AfD voters as Nazis isnt helping". I am neither from Saxony nor an AfD voter by any means, but i totally agree with that statement. I know AfD voters and if there is one thing that i can saya it is that simply labeling them as one thing and then maybe even make fun of that group of people just strengthens their beliefs.
AfD voters are nazis. you literally can not be an AfD voter and not be a nazi.
stereotyping saxons of course is stupid.
"I know AfD voters and if there is one thing that i can saya it is that simply labeling them as one thing and then maybe even make fun of that group of people just strengthens their beliefs."
if you willingly associate with nazis, you are a nazi, too.
Yeah the term nazi shouldnt be thrown arround so much!
We can only hope!
This video is very misleading. Over the last 20 years, all the bigger parties in Germany have shifted sharply to the left. Even the traditionally conservative CDU now takes positions, that were typically for a left party, only 10 to 15 years ago. For germans, that do not support leftists ideology, there is literally no other option, than voting for the AfD. On top of this, the german government, has recently taken a series of extremely poor decissions, like shutting off all nuclear plants, leading ro an extreme rise in energy prices, just to mention one. More unreasonable decisions to come, continously destroying the german economy. If you do not support this, you have to vote for the AfD, which, btw. is not so much right-wing, but much more represents a conservativ position, comparable to the former conservative CDU. That is the actual reason, for the rising numbers of potential AfD-voters
Thanks for reminding me, and it’s not just Germany, just look at Scandinavia and some of your neighbours (that southern one and 3 - small - ones to the west)
You could say France as well, but I France is just France, it’s just funny how normal Macron looks to me as a politician and I never would even imagine liking something other as cuisine from France
This theory that the left moved more left while the right stayed in the same spot has also been touted by Republicans, and it's simply factually incorrect. What really happened is that **both** sides got more radical, especially during the social media age where it's very easy to sit behind a screen and let emotions boil over into your political leanings.
@@Moving_Castles4278 It means a lot to me, that all non-german viewers (which are obviously most of the YT-viewers) are not mislead, by this type of videos. This type of videos are politically motivatiated by the Left, and do not represent the actual situation in Germany. There is NOT a danger of rising numbers of Germans voting extrem-right. It's quite the contrary: we do have a government, of a social democrats and the Green party, both following very left leaning agenda. Where the Green managed to become very dominant in the government, despite being the smaller party, pursuing a policy that is extremely destructive for the german economy.
Those german citizens, how do not agree to a destructive left-leaning government, have literally no other possibility, than voting for the AfD. These people are not a threat. Germany is NOT shifting right. The real concern is the very left-leaning german government, destroying the economy. While a growing number of Germans are concerned about the destruction of the economy, and turn away from the leftists government, the government makes it look like, these would be extreme-right voters. Witch is absolutely not true. Please do not believe this propaganda of the left-leaning german government.
I keep rubbing my eyes to see that it takes a Brit to take up on this matter in a way most German outlets would be unable to, and that in a fair, open minded, well balanced and everything-but-biased way. Absoutely great stuff, should be used as a reference for everybody, Germans and non-Germans alike. Please keep up with taking up on challenging stuff like this.
Sadly, most germans don't even have a clue about their own history.
but it is biased. claiming that "not all AfD voters are Nazis" is a pro nazi bias.
@@jurgnobs1308 You have an anti-reality bias.
@@Flo_wwww it's simply a fact. you can not vote for a nazi party and not be a nazi.
@@jurgnobs1308LOL
Thanks for sharing your views. It's been really interesting to learn your opinion as someone without the historical ballast of growing up in either West/East or the unified Germany.
But even if you forgot about the far-right orientation of the AfD party for a moment, I don't think that they provide any "alternative" for Germany as their name suggests. What they do is to provide a handful of either irrational or irrelevant promises in the sense of "If only X wasn't there, you'd be living in prosperity"
If only there weren't any immigrants, if only we hadn't been involved in the war of Russia against Ukraine, if there wasn't that discussion about gender, and so on.
While I consider it perfectly acceptable (or even feasible) to have more than one opinion on immigration, involvement in foreign wars or whether or not pronouns are the most important topic of this age, their "alternatives" are focused on these populist topics which guarantee lots of attention.
They provide no answers how an export-oriented economy like Germany will benefit from leaving the Euro zone. Which is even more bizarre as even populist right-wing parties elsewhere in Europe clearly identify Germany as the biggest winner of being part of the Euro zone.
They consider Germans living in a dystopia where everything is broken, run down or working the wrong way. While there ARE many things to critisize, it totally lacks proportion and any reality check. They will usually pick ONE other country which handles ONE issue different than Germany (and handles it better, agreed) as proof that Germany is doomed without getting the bigger picture. So they want the immigration policy as in Denmark, the isolationism and "freedom from EU rule" as Switzerland, keep up free market for exports but not for imports, have less government intervention while keeping up social/ fiscal benefits for the "right" (no pun intended) people and so on.
It's the same old cherry-picking pattern you find in Brexiteers, the Austrian FPÖ, French FN or followers of Trumpism.
On the other hand, in order to distance themselves from AfD, the other parties often have the knee-jerk reaction to dismiss the issues the AfD raises altogether. So they would not provide counter-arguments but rather say that the issues do not exist. Which is also not a great way to take part in an argument.
Very well said, but as polls show, already 20% of voters believe that criticising is a policy. It is already like that in US, but more around 30%. It is unfortunately mostly due to the "leaking" education system and problems with critical thinking. Ausbildung is not the answer to everything.
Danke!
What you said about the reasons for people in the East voting for populists (the structural effects of reunification) fits my own observations. I think this is an issue that many "westerners" still don't understand and that is not talked about enough. I might add a few aspect to that explanation: The fact that the Nazi past was not really discussed in the GDR (there was no 68 movement and the state was officially anti-fascist, so the personal and indirect effects of the Nazi era were never discussed), the fact that the western Neo-Nazis started what can only be described as an infiltration campaign in the East after 1990, and the well-known fact that xenophobia is strongest in areas without foreigners.
I am from Leipzig, pretty much a progressive and partially even leftist island inside Saxony (we get election flyers of the MLPD, just to give one example), and to be honest, I'm getting somewhat tired of having to excuse for my regional origin. Many Saxons do not vote for the AfD, but it is still quite strong in many rural areas and not all of that can be explained with structural reasons and not everything can be excused so easily. I don't really know how to solve this problem beyond the approach you mentioned, but I also know that just labelling everyone as an unsalvageable Neo-Nazi like some people do is not going to help. It's a very complex situation.
Edit: Another aspect that I noticed while speaking with people who grew up in the GDR is the lack of understanding of and trust in democratic processes. I think one often overlooked mistake after reunification was that the western institutions and politicians more or less assumed that the Easterners would learn themselves to participate in a representative democracy as well as in a society dominated by liberal mentality ("sell yourself well", "you don't get anything unless you demand it", etc.). There wasn't an organised effort to draw them towards the democratic ideals, to create a genuine interest in participation. Instead, they were basically left alone - a serious oversight in my opinion, that could at least partially explain the low election participation and the high number of protest voters.
Can you say me why my Partie is a populist one?
We have ideas and Plans, but we can not Rule, so why can you say that we rule badly?
@@dekatalan8638 Are you talking about the AfD?
@@untruelie2640 yes, we only talking about this Partie Here?
@@dekatalan8638 And what am I supposed to answer to you, when you say "my party"? Do you really think this discussion would be a productive one? As far as I am concerned, the AfD is a dangerous, anti-progressive, populist right-wing party with way too many connections to the Neo-Nazis and similar groups. I don't think we have anything to say to each other.
Leipzig is in general considered an outlier in the East, though - since they threw out Legida, hence making a clear stand against Nazis, while Dresden, Chemnitz aso didn't and always play the "we aren't all Nazi's card" if they are asked why they are allow the far right to freely march through the streets without any counter protests...I think that is what most people who play the "we don't vote all AfD" card overlook: Do a far right march in Berlin, in Cologne or even the Ruhr Area which does have an actual problem with immigrant criminality and therefore an excuse to at least listen to this kind of poison, and you can BET that there will be a strong counter protest. Not so in Dresden. And THAT is the point.
It is btw no accident that Leibzig is the outlier, considering the rule the city played in the fall of the wall. You can't teach people democracy, they have to life it and be ready to fight for it.
Thanks for your videos. I like the slightly diffenrent view on Germany.
And thank you for your donation. :)
As a German I think you've analysed the issue better than many of our broadsheets and mainstay media sites did. Although I would say that the economy is not the only issue, there is also a latent feeling of being overwhelmed with unselected immigrants that is esepcially present in areas where a lot of migrants are (temporarily) housed or where infamous crimes performed by immigrants happened.
Ach Gottchen, bist du so ungebildet und ersetzbar, dass du Angst vor Menschen ohne Sprachkenntnis und Ausbildung hast, du kleiner brauner Lemming?
its actually not like that at all. most afd voters live in areas with almost no migrants. they dont like them because they never met one. also: its not a feeling of being overwhelmed. its just blant racism.
@@carlosmarx2380o you live in Germany, are you "au fait" what is happening in the German government right now, or are you surmising and pontificating from abroad?
Most Germans who are now sympathising with the AFD(quite a few lefties as well) are fed up with the energy policy plugged by the government which would cost them tens of thousands of Euros. A government which is brimming with plenty of utterly incompetent individuals who lack the necessary qualifications to do the job they have been appointed for.
Many people in Germany cannot afford the required renovations of their houses to meet the "climate neutrality" standards plugged by the government and ask themselves what is going to happen to them if they cannot meet these standards. Will they have to flogg their homes to private investors, will they end up in rented accommodation? There is a great deal of uncertainty, anxiety amongst a wide swathe of the population.
Those who tend to sympathise with the AFD, including plenty of newcomers, feel that their government does not serve the interest of the majority of the people. They also want to know what exactly happened as regards the Nordstream sabotage. They do not want to send more and more weapons to Ucraine not only because of the enormous cost this incurs, money that could be invested into their own country - but also because they want the senseless slaughter of people on the battlefields of Ucraine to stop
The gap between the haves and those who are living pay check to pay check on a monthly basis is becoming wider and wider. At the top of German society a minority is accumulating immense wealth.
Plenty of problems as regards the crumbling infrastructure. (train services,) they feel that their country is being demolished, whilst uncontrolled immigration continues with plenty of (badly qualified) refugees flooding into the country at a time in which Germany is facing a socioeconomic demise. They turn to the AFD now.
Of course they are all extremely right wing, Nazis - according to the government and the German main stream media.
I really think the main reason the AfD raises is because there is just too much focus on that racist and anti-democratic elements in the party (which is why it is so dangerous) and to little focus on all the other issues this party manages to get the trust of the voters on. In addition to that, the other parties of the opposition (or possible opposition who don't even get enough votes) aren't doing a good job of displaying themselves as another alternative to these frustrated voters, and the CDU as former party of the government has a hard time to reclaim trust that was lost while they were in charge and the left wing party "Die Linke" - besides other problems - is still viewed as a party that could turn germany back to socialism.
In essence: It doesn't help to reduce all conversation about AfD and AfD voters just to the racist part of it - although you also shouldn't ignore it - instead look at the problems the people really have.
And yes, just as @carlosmarx2380 pointed out: Racism and xenophobia is higher in areas with less migrants. It is just human nature that you are sceptical of things you don't know well and something that you actively need to overcome by willingly open your mind and expose yourself to other cultures.
I personally thing racism and xenophobia happens when people don't mix. Immigrants can just be as racist and xenophobic as the natives if they're allowed to live separately, because with segregation nations within nations are being created meaning becoming a stranger in your own country is a possibility.
Here in the Netherlands we've so many nationalities we can see what happens we can see those differences between people allowed to join society (or allow themselves in) and who not. Moluccans for example refused to join society, hoping the Netherlands is to establish a Moluccan Republic on Indonesian territory. That's not going to happen. They live in separate neighborhoods and if anyone non-Moluccan dares to buy a home in their neighbourhood, their windows get smashed, they receive death threats just as long until people flee.
A similar thing can also be said of the Moroccans. People expected them to make money and then to simply return once there was no job for them like a sort of throw away product, because people are not happy they send money back home and they're not allowed to have a Dutch-level pension in Morocco. Berber Moroccans aren't the easiest persons, but if 2nd, 3rd generations aren't allowed to integrate, they see no reason to integrate here and in fact might look down on the Dutch tattas just as much as the Dutch look down on them. This creates a sort of Morocco Netherlands and a white Netherlands with free travel between the two. Native Dutchmen act like Moroccan machos and liberal Moroccans fed up of Moroccan culture getting "cheesed" (verkaasd). Both those Netherlandses have people of different immigrant backgrounds joining one side or the other. Mexicans, Syrians and Poles joining the Moroccan side while Chinese, Ukrainians and Surinamese (ethnic Ghanese, Indians and Java Indonesians) stick with the white side.
It's complicated and segregation of peoples can only be prevented by government intervention by actively mixing all the people.
Imagine voting for the Lefts party that dedicates all their afford for social justice...
As an American observer, I find this quite informative! In short, the answer is that although the radical-right _AfD_ is gaining popularity, it might not be because it is radical-right, but because some Germans are tired of the other parties not addressing economic issues, like the "inflation, unemployment, [and] the wealth gap" mentioned at 11:59. Hence, if anyone from the large, moderate parties ever (somehow) manages to read my comment, I'd advise them to address these issues. After all, not only would the public benefit from a good solution to these problems, but a good solution would also make the _AfD_ seem less special.
Thanks for the video!
You're right. The problem is that many people who are in charge of the governing parties don't really care about the German people and are driven by political ideologies instead. Those people won't change course. Others in those parties probably would, but the parties need some incentives to change their leadership. Catastrophic election results are a GREAT incentive.
Germany ain't going to be bailing out any other country. It's economy is heading one way - down.
I'm a mixed-race American (sometimes confused for a Turk or Arab) that has been living in Dresden for three years now, a city which often hosts AfD demos and had many anti-lockdown demos and so on.
I've never experienced outright racism. Occasionally I've even seen AfD party stands set up around the city, which hand out fliers to literally anyone who doesn't seem angry to see them; I was surprised to be offered one, I saw asians offered some too and other people who may seem "atypical" for its voter base.
While I imagine there may be some racist people here, I find the characterization of this part of Germany as a bunch of backwards, uneducated racists to be sad and insulting. In fact, I've come to find some people I've met from Berlin, with elitist mindsets to actually be more closed-minded than many of the people I've come to know here.
I have to tell you, but the AfD is not racist. That is a lie that is being spread to keep the opposition down. I myself am a gay man and in the AfD, because the party is not anti-gay either.
Berlin is east Germany as well…
@@satyagrahaaonly east berlin (berlin was actually split because its the capitol)
@@Videospiel-Man5730 I‘m talking about modern-day Germany, not the GDR. Nowadays Berlin as a whole can definitely be considered east german.
Yeah okay that checks out!@@satyagrahaa
What if the party didn't move to the right, but the government to the left?......
In principle, the party program of the AfD has a good overlap with that of the conservative CDU 15 years ago.
Weimar problems, Weimar solutions.
In the US the elite political class refer to those who have work for a living "as stinky Wal-Mart people"!
Voter turnout was much higher(!) than at other earlier local elections there because of the national media coverage.
As a German (with migration background) i also appreciate your take on this situation and in my opinion i have to admit that some solutions the AfD is offering are quite tempting such as abolishing the broadcasting fee, because in my opinion the publicly funded television never offered an attractive television program, even for my parents, who are in their late 50s and the rising fees are furiating.
My parents experienced much more hostility against foreign people (i dont like the term racism) in their youth than i experienced, even though my family speaks german fluently. I am 27 now and never felt the need to vote because neither the afd nor any other party reflects what i really want. Even my parents don't vote anymore because they feel betrayed, regardless of whether they vote for the CDU, the SPD or someone else.
"as a German" what you meant to type is "as an invader invited in my zionists into Germany"
@@Carl_ATHF Dude, my family is from the balkans.
For communal elections, 60% isn't a low turnout at all, especially when considering that these elections were in eastern Germany, where turnout is usually especially low. On average, turnout in communal elections is between 45 and 50%.
All well worded and certainly true. Still it might miss an important angle: It's pointless to discuss if voters for a fascist party are themself fascist (or racist) or not, it's about what government their vote will yield. Neither time, place or reasoning does matter.
I second this reasoning!
That's spot on. Let's ban the AfD now, and deal with the underlying problems after.
Der sachlichste Beitrag zu dem Thema den ich seit langem gehört habe. Thank you :)
Der bezeichnet die AfD als Neonazis und Faschisten und du nennst das sachlich. Wtf
Die Entschuldigung von Nazis ist wohl auch nur in den Augen eines Nazis "sachlich". Und genau das macht das Video. es verharmlost und entschuldigt Leute, die für eine Nazipartei wählen.
juicy video, gut zusammengefasst
"Germany lost the Second WW, but Fascism nonetheless still WON it!"
-George Carlin.
That’s quite wrong I would say. Even the word Fascism is a bad thing nowadays, Fascists can’t say they’re fascists and any such policies have to be put under the guise of some other ideology.
I would say it’s more “Germany lost the 2WW, the Fascists survived it”.
Most AfD voters I know are highly skilled (and well paid) blue collar workers. They aspire to a bourgeois lifestyle, including status
So instead of voting anything that expands the social safety net they vote for the party who's entire identity is identity politics. Nice.
I wouldnt say ethnicy, but when you get a german passport and still claim that you're proud to be turkish, see germans who eat pork as subhumans and plan on building more mosks then i think that you shouldnt be here.... and it doesnt changes my feelings if a leftwing person explains to me that there are people that like to go to mallorca and act like animals while they're drunk. I'm living in the suburbs of Hamburg and the mess that is the citycore keeps spreading out more and more to our "peaceful area" and the younger people become more and more disrespectful. 2 weeks ego a old lady said to a very loud group of immigrants that they should be a bit more quiet. The "leader of the group" started to yell at her "WAS WILLST DU?!!?!?" and the situation almost escalated, because a 80-90year old lady said "could you please be more quiet?" because a group of 10 couldnt behave.
The sad part is... i feel that part of germany views this as normal and sees the old lady as the problem?!?
@@DreaMeRHoLicMost people of Turkish origin aren't like that. Many are quite patriotic towards Germany.
@CB56__ Typical petit bourgeois fear of changes. I have lived for for years in the "problem" high immigrant district of Neukölln in Berlin, and never had a problem. Opinions like yours usually come from people who only read about those districts in the BILD, Sun or Daily Mail.
@@DreaMeRHoLic And now imagine that old lady having dark skin, or wearing a "Muslim" head covering, or speaking with an obvious accent. How do you imagine the typical "bio-German" group of Halbstarke would've reacted to her making that request?
Or just generally. If you think that this is a new behaviour or only shown by immigrants, you're deceiving yourself and haven't been around German village youth for quite a while.
6:05 as the situation in the east is disturbing, what about the richest states: Bayern, Hessen and especially Baden-Wurttemberg?? What is going on there? If life is so great there, why there are some large areas in darker blue? Have they got "infected" somehow? I do not recall these part's to be ever part of GDR or to be recently challenged by the economic situation. It rather indicates, unfortunately, that some deeper problem is creeping around the country
BTW, even people in the GDR had a name for the area in which you could not receive west german TV: Tal der Ahnungslosen (valley of the clueless). And even if I hate to say it, I'm with Mr Gauland, because the established parties don't offer any solutions to the problems at hand and seem follow the principle to sit out issues. And in such cases, the ones that play the instrument of our emotions best will win.
I definitely have to say, even though I am totally uninterested in voting and I am in that 'my voice doesn't count anyway' mode, I still make a point of not making the absence of my vote count for a political movement that I cannot identify with. Hence I go and vote every time I can to vote for something I can get myself behind and that is definitely on the left side of the spectrum.
I've voted invalid for years after the last SPD-Green coalition because of the massive disappointment that was. But I do cast my vote for a democratic party now, simply to weaken the far-right. It's easy, it costs nothing, and it helps keep the fascists out of power.
yes, and its a good thing.
Their rise has to be attributed to the inability of all other parties to get done what is wanted.
Their role is to serve the people. SERVE.
Yet all they seem to do is excelling in incompetence and dying on ideolocal hills that are not worth it. What we see is more important than what gets actually done. The feeling of things getting done is what gets the votes.
Do your job, make the people happy and they will be happy with you in power.
Maybe an explanation from someone who most likely will vote the AfD in the next elections.
I am from an immigrant family from a european country and my parents really wanted me to be integrated as good as possible, only speaking german at home, respecting and living the culture and rules of this country. This is not a hard task if you are willing to do it and it solely depends on YOUR character and respect for the country which allowed you to live in it. And so I will NOT accept people who aren't willing to do this while at the same time getting a lot of money from the state. I simply will not.
So, the problem is not "all foreigners", but those from muslim and african countries. The people wanting stricter immigration policies aren't against the spanish, polish, french, english, japanese, chinese, ... because these nationalities haven't been anywhere near as problematic. Like, there is no comparison. There are many cases where Syrians, Arabs, Iranians, Africans are violent or harass women, and the amount of stabbings as of late is off the charts. It's not plain racism against muslims or africans, but experiences which lead to hostility.
I myself as a teenager have been pretty open towards immigration from such countries. Ten years and some very bad experiences later I find myself to be full of resentment towards muslims and africans, which is not fair towards some genuinely kind people from these parts of the world, but it is what it is. I'll always be respectful towards respectful people, independent of their beliefs, though. Stupid politics by stupid politicians (open the gates in 2015, very bad integration plans and no sane or fair policies towards "good" or "bad" refugees) lead to many people being here which simply should not be here.
I think some cultures just aren't really compatible. I've talked to many muslims - and I mean the faithful ones, not the integrated turkish guys who eat Schnitzel and drink beer - and their worldviews and their views on the west are agonizing. "If we have enough muslims in europe, we could implement sharia laws", "If I could make the rules then I would forbid being gay", "Women should not be allowed to wear skirts" or "I don't like democracy and laws here, but I guess I'll tolerate them" are sentences I've been baffled by not only once. Please believe me when I say that. I wish these thoughts were not as common amongst the muslim population as they really are. The guys saying that often were very nice towards me, but in their core, they all think people who make satire of Mohammed should be killed. Many just say they wouldn't be the one to execute the person - this is what is called being a moderate muslim. The list goes on. And then parties like die Grünen or die Linke applaud islam and demand tolerance for muslims, all the while islam isn't compatible with any "progressive" worldview at all.
I do have to admit the AfD is full of idiots (Proleten!), but it is the only party that really wants to do something about these problems. As soon as the CDU shows that they want to tackle the same problems, and really pull through with that, the AfD will no longer get over the 5% mark since they would pretty much lose their only unique selling point. I'd be really glad to not have to vote these guys anymore. But for now there is no other option.
I agree. I was born in Germany and I never had a problem with foreigners, until I was faced with more and more direspectful behaviour and crime. 15% of the people living in our city center came to Germany seeking asylum, violent crime and sexual harrassment is in the news every week. People avoid certain parts of town when it gets dark because of how many bad things happen there. Shops are struggeling because customer's don't show up. I was in the city center at night 4 times in the last two years, and two of those times we had to call the police.
Add that to the fact that no established party takes any of the people's problems seriously, and you get what you have right now. Maybe people just don't like hearing that our health care system, schools, and infrastructure are getting worse and worse, while prices for everything are going up and the government spends billions on foreign aid.
I'm not saying we shouldn't help other countries, and I am also not saying that we should not take any refugees, but I can see how many people get angry when everything is getting worse but the government ignores it.
Most people don't trust the old parties anymore, because they kept lying about everything and making things worse for them. Even the more extreme left wing parties, that used to care much about social equality and worker's rights are now more concerned about refugees and gender than anything else, while looking down on the dirty working class.
It is weird that we are so afraid of anything mildly right wing, while at the same time we openly welcome groups and religions that are actively against anything our democracy and society stands for. I work with people from different countries, my girlfriend is not German and non-white, I eat in foreign restaurants and buy in foreign shops. We don't hate foreigners, we just don't like it when they cause trouble.
People always say that the AfD offers simple and fast solutions to complex problems, but how does that make them different from any other political parties? Is the green party going to save the planet by closing our factories and importing the goods from China instead?
In other words, your problem is based on race, not beliefs. That's literally a racist position. You're proving the point made by many people about you and the AfD.
A very good and honest deep dive. I’m glad that at least Poland is re-arming heavily…just in case.
Worry about Putin and not about the Germans, the army is in some kind of desolate state... 😂
That really helped me to understand the situation!
I think one issue about the stereotyping is that it also harms those opposed to the AfD in the relevant areas. It sometimes feels as if your existence isn't acknowledged by people from other parts of Germany. You almost have to be happy if somebody digs up the "there's only far right and far left in the east" stereotype, because at least it covers a larger group of people
The CDU did usually win in the east despite there being more left and right wing voters.
@@TheGoukaruma Yes, the CDU (in Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt) and the SPD (in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) did win elections in East Germany. Until large parts of the voting population there didn't feel that those parties still cared about their interests. ruclips.net/video/FmCcO5Bdv1U/видео.html is a somewhat famous example.
Video idea: Will CSU make the 5% treshold. If not, how would it change German politics?
They are certain to get at least 5% everywhere they field candidates. Even if they didn't, it would change very little.
The question for me is what happens if the AFD gets close to 50% in a state election, forcing every other party to enter a grand grand grand coalition.
@@perdbeer6713 The question is will the CSU get more than 5 % of the votes in all of Germany, which is difficult because they only field candidates in Bavaria. If that will ever become a serious threat, they will probably form some kind of election list agreement with the CDU so their combined vote share counts for the 5 % threshold.
@@imrehundertwasser7094 How would an inter-party agreement help with the 5% threshold?
@@Claudible They would need to find some kind of legal construct that allows the votes of CDU and CSU to be counted together as far as the 5 % threshold is concerned. There were discussions about it when the election law was changed this year. I'm not sure if it is possible under the current law, perhaps the law would need to be amended to make it possible.
They will always be able to win at least three direct mandates, though.
0:35 I'm from the US, studied Germanistik university, was for a semester in 1989 at the Uni Mainz, and have kept up with German news [as well as trying to keep from losing my German language skills] by reading the FAZ online. When I try to explain to other Americans what's been happening in Germany, I always end up calling the AfD the, “Alternative for Deutschland … Deutschland über Alles.” I can't help myself, the last 3 words just kinda spill out.
Because that's what they seem like to me, an American who's studied German, Germany, and German history, and what they've _always_ seemed like to me.
"FAZ" used to be a quality newspaper albeit sometimes too conservative. They have changed direction after Frank Schirrmacher´s decease. Don´t feel informed by reading it. I used to read my father´s FAZ from time to time. It´s become a promotion paper for the CDU, but linguistically it is still at the top and therefore good to improve your language level. Much better than "Bild" or "USA Today". Just look up the internet for the program of the AfD (Parteiprogramm) and make up your mind.
@@ruedigernassauer Yeah, I came across the AfD's Parteiprogram, like 10 years ago. And I found them rather repugnant. The thing is, the US Republican Party is actually _to the right_ of the AfD.
As for the FAZ, I know that it's conservative, pro-business and [used to] have a pro-American slant to it. Which is why I started reading it, because if the FAZ was criticizing something my country was doing, I _knew_ then that we were really fvcking up!
Also, I read it because, back in 1989 when I was studying an der Uni Mainz, the FAZ was West Germany's "newspaper of record" - the paper that tried to record historical events faithfully as they were happening. Kinda like the New York Times is/has been here in the US. "The 'first draft' of history," as the NY Times says. Is that no longer the case with the FAZ, and if so, which paper has become the "newspaper of record" for 21st Century Germany?
@@John_Weiss I do not know which newspaper can be called the newspaper of record. Probably none. I "read" the local newspaper in the company shared with others. The first part of it is non-regional news bought from AP, UPI, CNN and Reuter (that must be the list) and it is pretty biased and in favor of the German government. It is interesting what news do not get covered: The perennial conflict between China and Vietnam in the South China Sea (the Vietnamese East Sea), the background of the war in the Central African Republic (mostly immigrated muslims making up 10 % of the total population, but the majority in the capital, tried to install sharia legislation, a news bit I was told in Cameroon), the background of the Rohingya conflict in Myanmar. The Rohingya are ethnically and linguistically Bangladeshis. They were brought there as locals refused to work for British colonists. After excessive procreation and slaughters of buddhist monks and after settling on half of the coast line and a fifth of the country surface Myanmarese have started to repel them. No news coverage of this former jihad is done so that people think that muslims are oppressed and buddists are evil. That much said, the news people today are afraid to report the truth about China or Islam (just read the Quran and you will see how "peaceful" this religion is). ---
So the local news interest me most of my local newspaper. It covers construction (in Germany nowadays mostly conversions of existing buildings) and death announcements.
@@John_Weiss I had to correct my answer: I meant Central AFRICAN Republic. I first wrote Central American Republic (which specifically isn´t existing).
@@ruedigernassauer 😆
I hate when I do something like that.
How do you MEASURE how "far" some party is to the left or right?
How do you DEFINE "left" and "right"?
Do these DEFINITIONS have maybe changed, so the subject to be measured is now on a different spot on the scale without even moving themselves?
The "left" emphasizes class struggle, while the "right" emphasizes ethnic struggle. So (for example) strict enforcement of visa regulations is moderate right-wing, classifying all Muslims as potential terrorists is extreme right-wing.
@@rewboss Have you looked at multi-dimensional political metrics such as politicalcompass (2 axis) or politicaltest (6 axis). Ideally you would need to have as many axis as there are political issues (so confusingly many), any reduction to fewer is a simplification. I'd argue that 1 axis is an oversimplification, even the 2 axis of politicalcompass are quite coarse. Their axis are:
left-right = communist - capitalist
up-down = authoritarian - libertarian
Interestingly the authors of that website classify all current German parties (except the Left) in the right-authoritarian quadrant. In essence that means they are much more similar to each other than they pretend, and that we have right-authoritarians who admit to it, and other right-authoritarians who pretend to be something else. I agree with that summary.
Of course it also means that the Afd isn't really an alternative, but also that all the others are throwing stones in glass houses.
@@rewboss _"The "left" emphasizes class struggle, while the "right" emphasizes ethnic struggle."_
No. Class struggle is a mar xist idea and therefore far-left. Ethnonationalism on the other hand doesn't have a political alignment by default. Last time it was practiced by another socia list and collectivist regime, Hi tler's.
@@rewboss _"classifying all Muslims as potential terrorists is extreme right-wing."_
No. That's just having a prejudice against muslims. Not a political stance.
@@Historia.Magistra.Vitae. Hitler is classed as right-wing because his National Socialism replaced the idea of class warfare with that of ethnic warfare. He did take some left-wing principles and fused them with fascist ideas to create the Frankenstein's monster that was National Socialism, but its strongly xenophobic and antisemitic streak is what prompts historians to class it as right-wing.
Marx was a bit on the extreme side when it came to the need for the working classes to overthrow the capitalist classes, but the basic idea that inequalities in wealth and power are a root cause of certain problems is common to more moderate left-wing movements as well. This is why the moderate, mainstream left is more likely to argue for a tax regime that redistributes wealth from the richest to the poorest; the mainstream right is more likely to argue that wealth inequality is inevitable but can be harnessed to the good of society (e.g. supply-side economics, a.k.a. "trickle-down").
I‘d like to add that there have been tremendous efforts made by our government to solve the pressing issues. I think it is a little simple, to just claim the parties simply can‘t agree on anything. Granted, it‘s hard to imagine what could have happened in the past year, were it not for government action. But let‘s not forget that there is an ongoing war in Europe which is the main source of Inflation. We have just come out of a pandemic too. Times are not easy! But inflation could have been much higher. All of us were able to heat our homes in winter, energy prices have dropped again, butter is much cheaper than a couple month ago, almost every single German recieved a payment of 300 or 200€ by the government. Efforts have been made to cut the cost of transportation, i.e. deutschland ticket…. Let‘s not fall into the trap of populists and subscribe to the idea that ‚NOTHING has been done‘ or ‚EVERYTHING is getting worse‘. It‘s not. But its part of the truth, that no government will be able to simply erase all the challenges that war, pandemic, climate change etc. are bringing onto us.
"tremendous efforts made by our government to solve the pressing issues"
Please tell me you're joking
"But let‘s not forget that there is an ongoing war in Europe which is the main source of Inflation"
The main reason of inflation is the trade sanctions imposed by our government, not the war itself.
"We have just come out of a pandemic too"
The main reason for its disastrous consequences is the lockdown policy of our government, not the pandemic itself.
"All of us were able to heat our homes in winter"
The main reason it's in question at all is the trade sanctions imposed by our government.
"energy prices have dropped again"
They rose due to the actions of our government.
"butter is much cheaper than a couple month ago"
It rose due to the actions of our government.
" almost every single German recieved a payment of 300 or 200€ by the government"
To soothe the consequences of their own actions. In the long run they'll do far more damage than that.
Well, to be fair, it is hard to deny the "Everything is getting worse." claim, given issues like climate change, rising inequality and ubiquitous inflation.
@@scifino1 geberally speaking, true. But the AfD is not really solving any of those problems, while our government parties are.
@@13Luk6iul I agree, but the FDP seems to be a major roadblock in that regard.
I was also Not satisfied with his conclusion. You can’t just wish problems away. There are always problems. It’s not justified to vote for fascists and most people clearly know who they are voting for.
I am neither German nor do I have any connection to the right-wing political camp, I am in a political center party in another country.
Nevertheless, of course I thought about the political developments in Germany and came to the conclusion that it is not because of the AfD that so many people are more likely to choose this party, but because the other parties have failed. It is due to the high corruption of the German left and center parties, their unworldliness and duplicity that these parties themselves are responsible for the loss of voters.
One can imagine that if someone feels betrayed, they automatically support another political camp that seems more trustworthy and also keeps their election promises. After that, it doesn't even matter to people whether a party has ever been in power and has proven that it has fulfilled the election promises, because if the others have not kept all of them, it still seems logically a better one solution to choose the "newcomer".
With regard to the abolition of broadcasting fees, however, I also believe that they should be abolished. I pay license fees myself, I don't even watch TV myself, and I haven't used my radio for a long time. The only reason I have to pay fees is because I have an internet connection, even though I don't watch any public broadcasts. I already pay separately for the paid streaming services I use. This is an unspeakable injustice that must be stopped. I also have no interest in supporting state media, some of which are also used for propaganda purposes, even though I live in an officially neutral country.
I decide what I want to see and I'm willing to pay for it if it's really worth it, which I don't think is the case with state media.
To be honest, I think that these state broadcasters would have to switch to a subscription model with encryption, just like various private providers have done, because this is the only way to distribute costs fairly, which people do not use the said services unfairly burdened with costs.
It is also the case that I can cancel monthly with pay channels if I no longer like the service or I have already seen everything. In addition, I don't have to see any advertising with these services, unlike the state ones. Advertising, along with fees, is another source of income for the state media, not to mention the additional subsidies paid out by the state to these state media.
In my opinion, subsidies should also be abolished as a matter of principle, because subsidies distort competition, convey a false picture of reality and also represent cross-financing, which is fundamentally prohibited in all other economic sectors.
You decide what you want to see and are willing to pay for it. And they will give to you what you want to see. Not objective news.
That’s why I also love the Schulpflicht.
I really despise populism from both fringes. But I am especially concerned about the biggest and publicly funded German broadcasting network shitting on the population of an entire state or calling all people voting for a certain party "Nazis" or "extremists". I think it's a given that laughing in the face of those people who are actually really concerned about their livelihoods will backfire. The question is just how and what will it cost the rest of German society?
All in all great take, although I disagree with calling the entirety of the AfD party "Nazis". It's the same dangerous populist game that Böhmermann is playing on his ZDF show. It's gone so far now that the entire tax-funded "funk" network doesn't invite AfD members as interview guests on any show. Cutting communications with your most extreme political rivals is the worst decision you can make in a democratic society.
" calling all people voting for a certain party "Nazis" or "extremis"
what the hell else would you call someone who votes for a nazi party?
"All in all great take, although I disagree with calling the entirety of the AfD party "Nazis""
why? that is literally what they are. if there is a party of 10 people and they allow 1 Nazi in, you don't have a party of one Nazi. you have a party of 11 Nazis. as long as the AfD allows nazis in their party, every single AfD member aswell as every single person voting for them is in fact a nazi.
" It's gone so far now that the entire tax-funded "funk" network doesn't invite AfD members as interview guests on any show."
and? nazi parties are illegal by the Grundgesetz. in fact, the only real issue is that the Verfassungsschutz has not closed the party down. but forcing media to give a plattform to nazis is definitely not the right way.
"Cutting communications with your most extreme political rivals is the worst decision you can make in a democratic society."
no. the worst decission you can make in a democratic society is to allow a party that opposes human rights, the democratic system and the constitution to exist.
It's ironic considering the biggest and most loudest political demographics who habitually label their opposition as Nazis and extremists have in fact much more common with Nazis than anyone else.
Banning a political party to save democracy, paradox 😂😂
Not really?!
With mass emigration and the constant dilution of European countries identity and customs over the last 10 years the pendulum was bound to swing the other way..
So rn. Looking at the newest numbers for the "sunday question" the AfD was at second Position with 20% of all the votes of the people. Only the CDU is before them. With 28%
You did an extremely poor job of explaining how the party is “fascist”. I haven’t heard of the AFD censoring political rivals, however it seems like the opposition to the AFD is trying extremely hard to censor them…
He supposed it was a given fact and underlined it by quoting "Eurabia" (if Islam is OK for you, then that´s a point). A bad start for an analysis.
Agreed
@@ruedigernassauer That’s anti immigration, not fascism. There is nothing wrong with taking a stance against immigration. Especially when said immigration is coming en masse from mainly Muslims who are committing vastly more crimes in the country.
Good video. It's nice to see some empathic coments for once.
I can't really agree this time.
In the East, there's always been a tendency to vote for extremist parties, right now it could be more than 50% for extreme left or extreme right parties ("Die Linke", AfD). Who are both anti-EU, anti-NATO, pro-Russia and simply ignoring the new reality in Europe after Russia attacked Ukraine and threatened the West, also ignoring economic basics.
A recent opinion poll also showed a stunning misconception of democracy in Eastern states. A couple of weeks ago or so, from my memory:
*Q* 'What is the Government supposed to do in your opinion?'
*A* 'Carry out what I personally demand - even if it's illegal or violates the constitution" got *more than 70%*
These are my own words, maybe someone has the source ...
So, those people think that democracy is *only* about majorities, elections, maybe referendums on specific topics, and *not* about democratic values, *universal* human rights, rule of law and an independent justice system, free press, protection of minorities (and all the other stuff), and the constitution of course (which is not a bad one BTW).
In decades they failed to understand or learn that democracy is about tolerance, and compromise.
As you may have guessed, I live in the West. And most of my political life I've been frustrated (to say the least). I almost never got the government that I voted for. Still, I'm a fan of the German democracy. Although ... during the dark period of Kohl's reign I felt like living in a dictatorship. For me, it didn't make a difference if Kohl came to power through a coup, or if there actually were elections every four years ... if the majority keeps on voting for the wrong party or person in your personal opinion, it's still a democracy.
ruclips.net/video/wnNeiJjptsk/видео.html&ab_channel=DerDunkleParabelritter
If we look around, in the East, other 'new democracies' show similar tendencies. Poland, Hungary seem to embrace the same ideas. Anti-democratic, xenophobic parties/leaders win elections. Repeatedly.
Democracy is not just majority rule, but also universal human rights and the rule of law ... Do you not see the irony? That is precisely what the opponents to the covid policies argued.
@@xaverlustig3581 No irony there. Those anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers were selfishly trying to spread a deadly disease. Disregarding the right to live of the rest of the population which in turn is guaranteed by the constitution.
Ignoring science is okay if you don't jeopardize the lives of others. Then the rule of law and the constitution kick in.
PS "in decades they failed to understand democracy" There's something you fail to understand. If the majority of East Germans didn't understand democracy, the communist regime would still be in place. It was the East German people who brought it down, because they wanted democracy.
Besides, we're now in 2023. Anyone below 40 has at best faint childhood memories of East Germany, or none at all.
some people are beyond reason. mostly old people, so that problem will sort itself out in time.
As an American let me say that your amazing video sounded very familiar.
Yeah, with the difference that in Germany the far-right wingers from the Conservative Party can form their own party and after a few years win local elections.
In the U.S. system they drag the entire Conservative Party down with them.
Most of the people aren't even able to look beyond those party-issues. And the "Mistaktes of the other parties" (which isn't exactly wrong) are not mistakes at all and to realize this you need to look much much deeper in the system. The extremists already took over.
And it is our own fault
I think this is a very important video! Thanks for giving me some new insights on the rise of fascism.
So easy fix then. Just reliable provide people with excellent, reasonable politics by the democratic parties... Oh shit we are screwed!
This is what's happening but you'd rather listen to Bullshit BILD and friends
"Democratic parties", that widely used framing. Will the AfD abolish democracy when in power? A new party in Germany is either Nazi or communist or nihilist. If you´re willing to go with that you´ve already lost.
Like you, I’m a dual national-British and German. The difference between Germany and Britain is that if the Fascists in Germany may be making some sort of increased (weak) impression that, in the face of German history, they could never again gain real traction…..in Britain they have NEVER gone away!
I (still) have the misfortune to live in England….and I can assure you it is (and always has been) infested with Fascists, Racists and Xenophobes. When I visit Germany, which is quite often now, the feeling of Right-wingism is mild compared to the UK.
Evidence? Look no further than Brexit….for a start! Look at the scale of the cynical scapegoating of a few thousand hapless refugees and asylum seekers turning-up on the British south coast.
But, you are correct though…..Never write the popularist Right-wing off as “mad” or “insignificant”.
If the UK is so racist then why does the Reform UK party only at 5% of support?
~ 5:00 - Exactly. Voter base for extreme right is far more "disciplined" and likely to turn up to vote. (Up to a point this holds even for moderate right).In my Croatia, voter turnout is an excellent predictor of success of social democrats and independents.
Do not confuse resentment against illegal migration with a general rejection of foreigners. That's a big difference.
Do Afd only has problem with illegal immigrants or also with Asian, indians skilled workers , who are in Germany legally
@@pauldirc.. It's all about illegal migrants who come because they can get money to live in Germany without working. Working people are urgently needed and they are welcome, no matter where in the world they come from. especially craftsmen
@@pauldirc.. Let's say: parts of the AfD have no problem with Asians and Indians, and another parts have.
Yes ... but! inflation is no excuse for xenophobia and racism!
exactly! so many people spreading hate in the comments, almost looks reminds me of a VICE video
Xenophobia is a constant in all peoples
As someone who was born, grew up and lives in a rural part of Thuringia where support of the AfD is also pretty high I can say that racism and xenophobia (as well as homophobia and transphobia) is pretty high throuout all age groups. Older people are a bit more extreme in regard than younger people, but there isn't that much of a difference.
Every time you go to any kind of village festival here you can hear people say the most racist sh*t and when you call them out on their stuff and point out things that are just plain wrong you are painted as "one of them". That's an extremely dangerous way of thinking and actually scares me. You can even see Neo-Nazis walking about without any shame at these festivals. There was a school festival this week in my former Realschule and there was a guy with a shaved head and a Thor Steinar T-Shirt walking around and nobody was bothered by him.
It's even in my own family. My mom was at a concert yesterday and in front of them there was a lesbian couple and she told me how bothered she was by them, just for being lesbian. Every time my parents watch TV and two men or two women kiss they loudly proclaim their disgust. I really hate how deep seated this whole sh*t is here. I love my family, my village and the general area I live in, but this really makes it hard for me to enjoy living here.
Thank you! While I'm not from the East, I do think the often heard argument "but 70% didn't vote for the fascists" doesn't hold much water. The 30% that do feel comfortable doing so because the 70% don't stand up against it enough.
if you love people like that, you are part of the problem.
Do you ask your parents what bothers them about two people of the same sex kissing? Are they bothered about people in general kissing in public?
@@paolagrando5079 The just say "it isn't normal" and when I say, "but it is" I don't get a real answer back.
@@moenchii ask them their definition of normal? And even if it isn't "normal" in their view, point out that they aren't harming anybody, they are showing love.
Many thanks to Andrew for these insightful explanations 👍
Not saying anything said were wrong, however there's some aspects also to be considered IMO -
In Germany, there's two party blocs you can vote for: The non-wokes (AfD) and the wokes (all others) 😅
In "unspoken" local definition, "woke" additionally to the usual means agreeing to the open-borders migration policy introduced by Mrs Merkel in 2015:
Everyone, regardless of whether there's an actual conflict in their country or whether there's other secure places they could go to instead, can de facto come and stay for as long as they please - the asylum claim of many will be rejected; but this doesn't mean a thing in most cases, hardly anyone gets deported even after having been convicted of even multiple serious ćřïmėś, let alone for "only" being in the country ïłłëgàłľý 🇩🇪
NB this isn't about actual war refugees from Ukraine who are mostly women and children anyway (also because their men aren't allowed to leave the country, to have enough of a reserve to draft from); but young men mostly from MENA, mostly Muslim, mostly very un-woke ironically, with mostly anti-feminist and hómõphøbïć views and with about 70% illiteracy in their Arabic mother tongue who thus aren't easy to teach English or even German, from a viewpoint of a perspective to integration into society and employability.
German law says they have to be provided with the same allowance as a citizen of the country on the dole (ie. they get three times as much as eg. in France), meaning most of those coming into the EU will go to Germany and nowhere else; thereafter, to be to a large degree unemployed (together with their families they're allowed to bring), often bored and sometimes, ćřïmíńáľ 🤷 (knife àťțàćkś, řápėś and other vïøłėńćë including mùřďëř increasing heftily since 2015 - you can look it up yourselves or ask the Swedish)
To be fair, when coming as self-professed refugees, people aren't really supposed to work as they're not considered immigrants but "guests to shelter" - some will have some inofficial "side hustle" like ďřúğ ðëàłïńğ, earning notority with the police who have to act cautiously in order not to be accused of řàćïśm 👮♀️
So here, I see the fault to a great extent on sides of German regulations attracting people that are sure to be disappointed; facing a life in one of those countries and given the chance to instead live in Germany, I would be doing the same as those adventurers just taking their chances (except for committing any crimes 😉)
Apart from social costs, the monetary bill for those who come (about 80% no genuine refugees if you exclude Ukrainians, but immigrants into the social system by another name), i.e. their doles, health insurances and later, pensions, have to be footed by the German tax payer of course; a recent report showed around 50% of persons receiving unemployment money in Germany, often long-term, to have a foreign nationality 💸
If, as a German, you're not happy with the above state of affairs, voting for the AfD is your only hope for change. (In spite of some unsavoury characters in there, in addition to most in the party being normal people who in countries like Poland would be considered conservatives)
All other parties want the "come one, come all, come to stay" laissez-faire border regime to remain the way it has been for quite a while now also in the upcoming years - don't take my word for it, feel free to go and ask representatives of theirs or find some clear and credible assertion to the contrary online 🗿
This 100%
That's not true. There's no "open borders policy" in Germany.
Gute Zusammenfassung.
"abolishing the radio and TV TAX."
saying it's a tax is almost a felony in Germany. 😂
Short answer, no
Yes, the way the media is reporting does not help at all.
in 5:55 and follwoing you explained the east-german-identity-effect. a second importaint effect is the east-german-exodus effect: after the opening of the innergerman border masses of east germans migrated to west germany. so manny in fact, that pople in east germany on average are even older than in japan (being the oldest country on earth). those seeking oportunities tended to leave. the frustrated tended to stay. the frustrated tend to vote afd or not to vote at all.
I AM one of those who will vote AfD at the next opportunity, and I can explain to you why. In the last 20 years there has been a general shift of all traditional parties to the left. The CDU (which used to cover the right spectrum of voters) has shifted to the center and is almost indistinguishable from the SPD (which used to cover the left spectrum), which has also shifted to the center (or stayed left or God knows what - nobody knows what they stand for anymore). The Greens have become a socialist party at its worst: their staff consists mainly of people who have never learned a trade but have a clear agenda (i.e. saving the world from CO2, at any cost!) and want to turn this country into what Talmon called in 1952 a "messianic democracy" (a kind of "we no longer play by democratic rules because we know better than you what is best for you"). Nevertheless, all the traditional parties are willing to form a coalition with them in order to gain power. If you want to make sure that you end up with a government without the Greens, there is simply no alternative to voting for the AfD.
Just to give you an idea of how screwed up the situation is in Germany today, the Greens have declared (and the other parties agree) that voting for the AfD is "undemocratic". Holy shit, politicians telling us what we can vote for?
It reminds me of a famous poem by Bertold Brecht about the East German uprising of 1953, which goes: "After the uprising of June 17th / The Secretary of the Writers' Union / Had leaflets distributed on the Stalinallee / Which stated that the people / Had squandered the confidence of the government / And could only win it back / By redoubled work [quotas]. / Would it not in that case / Be simpler for the government / To dissolve the people / And elect another?"
The Greens claim that right-wing extremism is on the rise. The reality is that we fear being swallowed up by neo-socialism !!!
N.B. I voted for the Greens for more than 20 years. They seemed to me to be the only honest ones among all these corrupt politicians. Boy, was I wrong!
Linksruck? Ach komm nicht mit diesem Mythos. Es gibt zur Zeit eher einen Rechtsruck.
@@duellinksantimeta7636 Und da ist es wieder, das gute alte Märchen vom ansteigenden Rechtsextremismus. Klar, wenn man jeden zum Rechtsextremisten erklärt, der anderer Meinung ist, DANN haben wir einen deutlichen "Rechtsruck". So haben wir ja schon Corona erfolgreich bekämpft. 🙂
True, the Green have lied to their voters before the elections: "No arms into conflict zones." -- and they say yes to arms deliveries to Ukraine. So much for pacifism and "swords to plowshares". Now they are having the forest chopped down for windmills and plan to build a harbor for liquified natural gas in the natural reserve of Rügen. So much for ecology. And in economy they totally suck. The new generation Greens suck completely, these broken up students with no way back to the economy. I used to take them as honest. I once gave them my proposal for a better organization of public transport in the river Sieg valley without increasing costs. I later found it in their program! -- Let´s see how the AfD, once in power, will become the next "FDP" (wishy-washy party with members glued to their chairs). But I´ll give them a chance and, no, by as much as I know they are not fascists or nazis.
TV and Radio Tax ?
The GEZ is not a Tax because if that were the case the GEZ would be calculated by income and not 18,36€ for everyone regardless.
Thank you so much for your very accurate analysis! I would like to add a few comments:
• In Germany, there has been a fairly stable 20% share among voters who vote right-wing or far-right for decades now. So far, we have mostly been lucky that the right-wing parties have been so divided and fragmented that they have mostly stayed below the 5% hurdle. Election successes for far-right parties also occurred long before the AfD and its most successful election in 2018 - in the 1960s, even the openly far-right NPD managed to enter the state parliament of Badem-Würtemberg with up to 10%.
• the distrust that East Germans often have of the mainstream parties (Greens/SPD/FDP/CDU/CSU) is not exclusively due to the negative experiences made after reunification. 40 years of Soviet-style socialism have also contributed to the general distrust of governments. This is also the reason why DIE LINKE still enjoys a certain amount of support among the older population in eastern Germany. But among younger voters, who were born after reunification, DIE LINKE is more likely to be seen as the successor to the socialist SED. Unlike in West Germany, where DIE LINKE tends to be seen as a protest party, this special east-german historical relationship makes it a no-go among protest voters in East Germany - that's why they preferredly vote right or even far right.
Overall, I definitely see a growing danger from right-wing populism for democracies _worldwide_
In times of social upheaval, insecurity grows in large parts of the population. And everyone should have noticed by now that we are living in such times:
• Climate crisis
• migration
• Change in the geopolitical balance of power (USA/China/Russia/India)
• War in Europe
Although the challenges are complex and multi-layered and there are no easy answers, people tend to choose easy solutions and explanations, especially when they conveniently present a Scapegoat to put the blame on. No wonder right-wing parties are on the rise worldwide.
This is true, since many decades right-wing parties in Germany rose and fell but have a constant share of voters, NPD, Republikaner, DVU, AfD. So the popular argument so often used that right-wings are rising is simply not true.
Cool - I am th 1000th like!
Sorry, if this was happening some 15y ago, I would agree with your assessment. But the re-unification happened 30y ago, and as a matter of fact, the excuse to vote for fascists out of the frustration that was witnessed a generation ago is unacceptable. AfD voters are mostly frustrated with the fact that we left the 50ies half a century ago. Its strength seems to be the result of a general shift we see towards a change in what is seen as okay and what isn't anymore. Be it in language or in the current shift to renewable energy. The ignorance of our government, which misses every opportunity to bring people on board, adds to this. The most recent example is the idiotic discussion about whether people with an income of more than 150k € annually should be excluded from governmental parenting aid. The largest opposition party (CSU) and a part of the governing coalition (FDP) consider this interestingly as an assault on gender equality - btw, the same parties are fighting against quotes for females in leading positions and consider governmental aid for lower incomes as an attack on the principle of performance as the main source of income...
by what metric did you determine that reunification was long ago enough now? Are we gonna pretend the effects of that don't still echo throughout society?
@@Exgrmbl Time.
@@Exgrmbl The effects are in parts still there, sure. But it's not like there aren't parts of the Ruhr area that went through similar or worse economic upsets. It is simply no excuse to vote for fascists.
Dude, is using the slavery was so long ago type argument, but on the left 😂.
What I find fascinating about that map at 6:18 is that you can also barely see where the American, British and French sector where? Apparently teh US is really bad at weeding out rightwing populist and near fascist tendencies not only back home but also when they implemented the "Persilschein" in the aftermath of 1945! The ex-British and the ex-French sector are way more cleaned up of such radical thoughts and fascist tendencies. Granted the French did not as good a job as the British, but they certainly did way better than the US and we know from historical documents that the USDDR aka Soviet Union actively build on Nazi agencies and employed them in their structures, often even adapting Nazi agencies and the dreaded Stasi was filled with Nazis in their ranks, especially the higher ranks, so there's that I suppose?
This society does not value academic excellence nor does it value manual labour. The only thing it values is financial power.
On paper, academic excellence is still highly regarded, but ultimately financial power does win.
Though academic excellence can be a factor in gaining financial power, it isn't a certainty. On the other hand, people doing manual labor do have a slim chance of getting wealthy through legal or illegal means.
Well thought out video. Its true, AfD voters are not all Nazis... but they vote for Nazis and I don't know whats worse actually.
(I very much acknowledge the various issues, problems, perceived humiliations etc those people face now and faced in the past, but there is simply no excuse for voting in Nazis to political power.)
Yeah, malice or stupidity, it doesn't matter if the outcome is the same.
Was ist an der AfD nationalsozialistisch?
*or if they just ignore the problems like denying climate change.
Okay, but today in the information age, no one can say they didn't know what they were voting for or what methods populists use. Everyone knows about the history. And those who vote for Nazis or Nazi sympathizers out of dissatisfaction need not hope for my understanding.
I am not particularly satisfied with the government's work at the moment either, but I have too much sense of responsibility than to vote for Nazis just to send a message. Voting for Nazis is like shooting the pilot on a plane in protest because you didn't like the food that was served.
But what are desperate people trying to feed their families supposed to do when all the mainstream parties have failed them? Nobly sacrifice themselves and watch how they and their friends get poorer while the politicians' friends get richer?
Yes, people know the history, but they can't afford to worry about that now. There is a party that promises to keep them fed and protect them in the future so that nothing bad will happen to them, who do you expect them to vote for?
@@rewbossthis is a party that is not going to be a part of any solution. Plus, it really is an egregious misrepresentation to claim that the current government has not done anything about the problems. Maybe they could have done more, except ... _cough FDP cough_ ...
@@rewboss The issue here is that they willingly and knowingly support a party that spouts racism and anti-democratic demagogy. If you vote for them, you cannot ignore this and you cannot pretend you didn't know about this. The fact that you didn't see another true alternative[sic] doesn't water down the fact that with your vote you willingly support a fascist party.
After being called a fascist-worst-than-hitler Nazis for years for speaking about their problems and issues and no one listening to them, but only disregarding them as "stupid nazis", I'm pretty sure most people just don't care anymore. "If that's what they call right wing, then might as well be".
Compare the AfD election program with that of the NSDAP and one from the CDU/CSU 30 years ago and please tell me how the AfD is literally the Nazi Party.
There just isn't a proper conservative party in germany anymore, even the CDU has merged with the other typical coalition parties and if the CSU dares to say anything, they are instantly disregarded as nazis again. This whole situation is no wonder to me.
@@viveladecadence And so the fact that they are now willing to vote for such a party is a measure of how bad things have got.
It's easy to just set them up as figures of hate, but that's not going to work. It's not reality, and they're just not going to listen to you. My idea is that instead of lecturing them and calling them Nazis, it might be more effective to make sure they don't have problems they can blame immigrants and foreigners on. If, for example, they have jobs, they can't complain that "foreigners are taking our jobs"; if their children can easily find an affordable apartment when they go to university, they can't complain that "refugees are taking our homes"; if a coherent package of policies to improve standards of living and social cohesion coupled with effective (not "repressive", I mean actually effective) helps bring down crime rates, they can't complain that "immigrants are stealing our cars"; if more effort is put into combatting ghettoisation, they can't complain that "brown people refuse to integrate".
It's a bit of a no-brainer, if you ask me.
One of your best Videos!
You sir, made a really good and objective analysis about this topic, even more objective than the ones from the public service broadcasting here in Germany, but there is a small flaw: The federal office for the protection of the constitution is bound by instructions from the Ministry of the Interior. The interior minister of Germany is at the moment Nancy Faeser. A woman that has written an article in a newspaper from the antifa and is therefore neither a good interior minister for Germany, nor a good superior for the federal office for the protection of the constitution.
You are only afraid of the Antifa if you are a fascist. Nancy Faeser does a proper job in contrast to here predecessors.
@@u.s.1974 Nancy faeser is the worst
@@jointser1008 Prove your claim. Or STFU.
i do agree with most of your points, but i think you look at it from an a bit naive perspective. You are a white (presumably not in any way queer) western guy. You will not have a lot of problems if the AFD takes over. If we look at countries like austria, hungary or poland, where parties like the AfD are now in gouvernment, i think we cannot look at this from your perspective. Sure, not every AfD voter is racist. Yes, it has a lot to do with poverty and the east-west divide. But i dont think we should, and i somewhat hear that from what youre saying, take that as an excuse for those peoples decisions. In the afore mentioned countries, the lives of non-western and even most asian immigrants are made worse in unimaginable ways. In poland they got "no-queer-zones". Queer people are beaten up by police, sometimes imprisoned for just existing. Not to mention the laws about trans healthcare that, not metaphorically but actually, are killing trans people.
The idea to improve everyones lives is obviously good but, imo, is also just naive. The AfD will not go away if we do just that. They might even get stronger. What we need on top of that is strong societal and parliamentary opposition. And, if in any way possible, a ban of the AfD.
As an AfD voter I really have to ask you one question. What is more fascist: All other parties and most media trying to suppress the opposition as block parties or having normal conservative positions which the CDU also had 10 years ago but shifted left?
A party that actively tries and who agitates against queer people and other minorities, while the Group leader in Thuringia keeps saying shit that even the Verfassungsschutz classifies him as a far-right extremist, is in fact, more fascist
@@OldBloxycube 100%
Schau mal nach unter Karl Poppers Toleranzparadoxon, dann weisst du auch warum keine demokratische Partei mit den dreckigen Faschisten kooperieren will.
@@OldBloxycube btw they actually have someone who is gay but that don't stop him to oppos lgbtq propaganda. everything after LGB is fake and are mental disorders
@@u.s.1974 Was sagst du dazu dass manche versuchen die AFD zu verbieten? Oppositionen verbieten genauso wie in 1939...
The main topic is a green/red cultural revolution in all aspects of social life and economics, only the AFD is in opposition to.
Without this premise you can only come up with the wrong conclusions.
While parties in charge deforming the constitution and openly working towards a undemocratic system like in china, because the end is near and we need fast centralised decisions, the AFD is promissing a direct democracy, like in switzerland.
Yet they are called anti democratic, anti constitutional and even fashist. lol.
The word xenophobic is part of this media campaign, because nobody in the AFD has a problem with foreigners who dont create problem areas and exploding criminal records.
There is no viernamese paralel society within germany with vietnamese clan wars and daily mass rapings or thousands of vietnamese amok runners in the german streets. AFD gives a warm welcome to vietnamese people.
Its a migration politic, where there is no living place for millions of germans even for me, and no money for support, but everyone else cries for more mass migration.Does this makes sense to you? All empty space wich was left is now occupied for ukrainians. The is no place left, no capacity.
Meanwhile AFD is labeled trasphobic or whatever, but has a lesbian LEADER. wtf?
... is called antisemitic while running an own jewish organisation jews for AFD.
Every word is brought to you out of context by the media and politics.
This all is a dirty business to manipulate you, from all sites of the spectrum.
Well written, but don´t expect Rewboss to react to that, that Mister Slick.
This video is so biased
I also want to add on that current actions of the Traffic Light Coalition arent helping either. Like slashing social spending by 6% in a time when its more important than ever.
Great analysis!
My humble contribution:: The rise of the AFD is in big part due to the fact that more and more people are unwilling/unable to aproach life realistically , which is a very dangerous development. Two examples:
- They vote for "Die Grünen" or at least see them becoming part of the new government, but they cannot comprehend that then they are trying to put into practice what is in their party-programme!
- They think that anything that goes wrong is fault of the current government, but the worst things happening are just beyond its sphere of influence. For instance, when greedy members of the boards of car-companies are ruining our reputation by cheating customers in the entire world manipulating the vehicle's emission-controls.
> - They vote for "Die Grünen" or at least see them becoming part of the new government, but they cannot comprehend that then they are trying to put into practice what is in their party-programme!
Is the party progamme of the greens war and inflation?
Why would customers care about emissions?
@@fungo6631 I didn't say that all of them care about emissions. But they care about being sold an expensive BMW or Mercedes that turns out not to be what it appeared to be. And all the fuss and disadvantages that this will bring along...
@@geotropa1043 Wdym not what it appeared to be? If it had the same performance and features as advertised, I'm sure that they didn't give two fucks.
I'm sure that those who really care about emissions weren't affected as they bought an electric car at the most.
@@fungo6631 question: did you get that the cars served as an example only, but were not my point as such?