80 percent said no — so let’s stop pretending the AfD speak for ‘The People’

https://euobserver.com/eu-political/ar6f116fda

by thealejandrotauber

45 comments

  1. Didn’t they double their vote share since last bundestag? I don’t follow the logic. Old parties will keep losing until policies change.

  2. I mean by that logic every party got a “no” from the people. No one got 50%

  3. Almost 70% of the USA said no to trump, oh wait, my bad, 32% said no and 36% said “What’s on TV tonight?”….

  4. 92% said NO to the left.
    88% said NO to the greens.
    And so on.

    Sorry, That’s not the way democratic voting works.

  5. Yes lets just ignore the glaring fact that they are growing and are now in basically a win/win situation. Either they get a coalition with the CDU (unlikely although they align the best in terms of policies) or they’ll point the finger and say “We would have done that better” when CDU and SPD inevitably fails.

    Saying “Oh but they got no power it’s fine” is just ignoring the glaring fucking elephant in the room. Their growth and popularity among young people here is a massive issue.

  6. Stop pretending there isn’t a wolf at the door. The wolf still lives and breathes.

  7. I agree, but lets not “rest on our Laurels”, we need systems in place to fight disinformation and manipulation. We should also check if afd has dark Ties ( like with Elon) and not be afraid of putting them in jail if there is proof. We can’t repeat what the stupid country did.

  8. 20% Nazis (around 10M) is not something to ignore though either.

    Yes, if you vote for them, you are a Nazi. You vote for Nazis, and I don’t care what your motivation was, if you felt abandoned or wronged or ignored. I bet a lot of Hitler supporters were feeling the same way. History classifies them as Nazi supporters.

  9. Yeah, 20% open neonazis is a lot. Too many some might say.

  10. Yeah sure. Thats what we in the Netherlands thought aboht the PVV. Now they are the biggest party. I wont be comfortable until the beast is slain and thrown out of parliament.

  12. false equivalence there.

    the vote wasn’t “AfD or not AfD”, it was a vote between multiple choices.

    AfD still got 2nd place there.

  13. Exactly, no party talks for the people, direct democracy now!

  14. If a party suddenly gains so much momentum compared to previous elections, their policies are worth looking into. You may not agree with all of them, but you gotta pick out the key ones and consider pushing them through. Dismissing the whole thing altogether is foolish.

    Illegal Immigration for example. I can’t help but wonder if the democrats had handled immigration better, maybe they had a fighting chance. One prospective policy could’ve paved the way for a much healthier transatlantic alliance.

  15. AfD is one big scam to grift from their voters. Why is Weidel ,- the uber patriot – living in Swizerland? How much AfD is supported and financed by Putin and Musk? They are fakes, dangerous yes, but still incompetent patsies who will be remembered as such.

  16. Increasing from 10 to 20 is a big win actually. This can be avoidable with a better migration policy. 

  17. so ? over 90% said no the the greens

    This is the dumbest kind of fake intellectual point anyone can try and make, Germany has a several parties, it was not a yes or no between 2 sides.

  18. 80% voting for someone else doesn’t mean they “said no”.

    Stop burying your head in the sand

  19. Will there be time when AfD recognized as an extremists neoNazi party and be banned?

  20. Okay, the top commenters don’t get it.

    This party proclaims to speak for THE PEOPLE. No other party does this. Because it is undemocratic / authoritarian to make such claims.

    Of course any other party also didn’t get 70 to 99 percent of the vote, but this is besides the point.

    Therefore everybody including the press and internet commentators should stop framing the situation in a way that supports the notion that this party of far-right extremists somehow speak for THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE.

  21. I’m in no way making a case for AfD here, but you also need to consider the distribution of votes. Most of Germany said no to them, except in former GDR.

  22. They are a problem regardless. All they need in the next elections is 25%+ and to finish ahead of the CDU/CSU, essentially becoming the face of right-wing politics in Germany. They’ll be able to normalize a lot of nasty stuff. The CDU/CSU and SPD coalition is gonna have a lot of work to do to stop that from happening. They’ve just had they worst vote share ever (from what I read) and it’s likely that they’ll keep falling and losing younger voters for AfD and Die Linke, especially now that they are the government (which is bound to be unpopular in the long term).

  23. Musk and Putin are chipping away. This wasn’t a loss rather a further push into power.

  25. Educate a Canadian like myself.

    Was this a good win for Germany/Europe? I know there was a concern about Musk getting involved in this election.

  26. Listen I prefer the CDU all day but it’s time for them to divide and conquer the AFD votes,152 seats is insane in my opinion, by next election if the CDU/SDP fail to deliver, we will see them keep gaining more seat. Target their voter base in the east, it’s obvious that the voters are dissatisfied with established parties that are failing to put results.

    Of course Covid didn’t make it easy. Plus with social media some of these voters just don’t wanna listen, which is another concern.

  28. Second strongest party – your conclusion: People said ‘no’. That’s some weird logic there.

  29. By that logic even more than 80 percent said no to green politics

  30. I’m more worried about the 20% who said yes.

  31. This is such a backwards logic.

    This would mean 89 percent said no to “die grünen” and even more said no to “die linke”

  32. That 20 percent of people are racists is not shocking, it has probably always been the case. What we need to do is stop pandering to them, just because they cry and scream the loudest.

  33. also be advised thats only the voters.
    lots of people living in germany cant vote.
    i know, duh, but keep that in mind before losing faith in humanity.

  34. You know, I really would like to share this perspective but I don’t feel it would help. First of all there is an ideological victory for AfD even if it isn’t a win by election results. And second, it won’t go away. People believe this. I’m not saying we should take their fears serious, I can’t. But to them their fears are real, fear always is, no matter if the thing you are afraid of is real or not. And that is why I feel like this just won’t work.

    Unless we can find a way to look at the same thing as AfD and right leaning Union voters and be able to communicate to each other about what that is and what it means, there is no hope of having this rift at least slighty sealed. Like we need to look at the same thing and when we say “this is a sphere” and they say “no, it’s a cube”, I fear it’s not them lying, I think they believe it’s a cube, even if it’s not. I really really hate this and I’m angry at many politicians and voters but I believe at this point the “taking a stance” and making clear who *is* “the people” just won’t do it. Maybe that will make it even worse. I don’t have other strategies to propose but I believe this to be the uncomfortable truth. Just being right, being with the facts and being rational and loud about it won’t cut.

  35. 70% said no to CDU, and yet they’re in power. It’s Germany’s system that is working against them now.

  37. Absolutely nothing here points towards balanced debate.

  38. Hitler only took 33% of the vote after his most successful (and fair) election, yet he still took power within the confines of the law. Let’s not pretend AfD needs to be the voice of the people in order to become successful. Their 20% share is still significant. For AfD, the current election results are a win-win. Either Union can’t get around them and breaks the “Brandmauer”, or they’ll bide their time and grow bigger after the CDU-SPD coalition inevitably disappoints a part of their voters. Germany needs to nip them in the bud or become cozy with the fact that AfD is a mainstay.

  39. CDU will fumble, since terrorists are gonna be terrorists and stab and hit more people in Germany. AfD is going to gain more votes next election come round. Only other positive thing is for them to govern well in the places they were picked. Good thing the younger Germans are more and more aware of the implications of unvetted islamic immigration, and more skeptical of mainstream news.

  40. Based on that comment and the results of the election EVERY POLTICAL PARTY WAS TOLD NO!!!

    So let’s stop pretending that ANY political party speaks for ‘The people’

  41. No party speak for the people. They speak for the party. 

  43. It is a shame that the Krauts would prefer to have tragedies like Cologne be repeated a thousand times than to risk someone on twitter call them “racist”

  44. Couldn’t you say that about every party? None of them got a majority.

  45. Afd and similar parties will only grow until the mainstream parties adapt their policies.

    Look at what happened in Sweden. They ignored the Sweden democrats for way too long and they only grew every election until its was impossible to keep them from power.

    Don’t exclude to many in a democracy. It’s not healthy

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