Hard-right AfD ready to blast through ‘firewall’ in German election

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1. The city of Schwerin used to be many things: a Saxon colonial outpost, a prolific centre of witch trials, and the hometown of Rammstein, a shock-rock band that is one of Germany’s most successful cultural exports.

   Until recently it was also a seemingly impregnable stronghold for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic party (SPD), whose Russia-bedazzled state premier ruled her fiefdom from a fairytale castle on a lake island.

   That era is now as squarely in the past as the Saxons and the witch-burnings. At the Bundestag election on Sunday, the radical right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is projected to win not only Schwerin but every other constituency across this northeastern region.

2. No that is not likely to happen

3. https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/germany/

   The AfD has seen a meteoric rise in the past years, doubtless. But a government excluding the AfD seems likely at this point, so the main thesis of the article – That the firewall will fall – is not particularly likely

4. they are not blasting through everything. they will get that 20%-ish share that is not enough to control anything.

5. I sincerely doubt that.

6. I would hope that a lot of Germans who might have thought about voting for them, been on the fence, see it as a protest vote or whatever will be looking at what’s gone on in America over the last few weeks and thought “too hell with that” and not tick AFD. Wouldn’t be overly surprised if some have also been put off by the big daddy of American capitalism, Musk, walking in on the party too and that it has backfired.

   On the other hand i think with the wave of right wing politics that seems to be washing over western politics right now we cannot be complacent and must encourage every German to get out and vote for anyone other than AFD

7. 2015 will be remembered as the moment when the far-right became empowered. The migrant crisis that followed the syrian civil war has fundamentally changed europe. I remember warning people back then that anti European sentiment and far-right politians would become empowered through the open borders policy.

   The vast majority of germans that vote for the AFD due so because of the large presence of migrant groups that have failed to integrate into German society. At the endnof the day people don’t want to see radical shifts in the demographics of their country and city.

8. Germany needs at least one of the responsible political parties to move right on the immigration issues else AfD will fester and grow on this subject. That will serve no one

9. Parties like afd will continue to grow until establishment parties finally listen to their constituents and admit that their policies led to serious problems.

   Unfortunately they are too ideologically captured and out of touch with the realies for any self reflection. We see this with their attempts to ban opposition under the guise of extremism. This would further radicalise their opposition and errode any trust left in democratic institutions

10. That title is misleading.

11. idk a lot of people also said trump has no chance before this election too

    so you never know what really is going to happen when people start voting

12. Why can’t the CDU just take a tough stance on immigration and isolate AfD? From the graph, it looks like AfD grew from 10% to 20% in 3 years. Let’s assume this roughly represents the non-extreme portion of AfD. It seems to me the challenge is to lure those voters back to non-firewalled parties. If the CDU can’t, some other party should step in or form to cover those voters.

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