Map of annual household income and voting AfD

29 comments
  1. Correlation is not causation. And it’s visible that the AfD support is not directly proportional to the wages, as seen in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and in the poor districts in the West.

  2. Seems there a two parameters: 1) do you live in the former GDR? and 2) do you live close to the evil Czechs?

  3. This looks like a pattern of “fuck you” voting. People who are dissatisfied with current regime can vote for a party they don’t necessary agree with, if they are fed up with the government pretending to care but doing nothing. As revenge, voter can be driven to supporting party that would cause the most anger and fear for the ones in power and their supporters.

    I know this first hand because I have voted with this mindset myself for party and candidate I don’t really like and was very satisfied when he won after observing reactions on opposing side.

  4. Don’t really appear to be connected. If you correct for East/West German split they even appear to be negatively correlated, albeit weakly so.

  5. Good way to say that the left doesn’t care anymore about the working class.

    Is that what you wanted to point out? Or it was an attempt to subtle says something else?

  6. whenever I see this map, I remember the article I’ve read in Newsweek where they made a story about far-right parties in Europe and interviewing their voters.

    For Germany, they picked a dude from Angermuende (20 mins or so of train from the border with Poland, an hour or so from Berlin) who said he was very very against immigration.

    But don’t mind his Polish wife, that didn’t count.

    (before everybody starts: I KNOW what the dude was implying. Doesn’t make it less of a BRUH moment).

  7. My question is: are they making less money in comparison because they have less education, or they are less educated because they are making less money, come from poorer families.

  8. There’s always talk of people voting “not right” (but right-wing) as others, with an external and condescendent view.

    Nobody tries to understand why they vote this, try to get in their shoes and see that these people are [rational voters](https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics/us-gov-political-participation/us-gov-voting-rights-and-models-of-voter-behavior/a/lesson-summary-voting-rights-and-models-of-voting-behavior) just like them.

    The pauperity-AfD correlation might not imply causation, there’s always a salad of factors involved, from the DDR to Prussian legacy. But two points I’d like to add from this:

    1. AfD voters are citizens, they should be heard and understood, so their needs are met by other parties that dislodge the authoritarian element.

    2. Pauperity is used as a tool to spread hate and feel superior. Not one democratic party in the Liberal west in the last 30 years has addressed this growing issue, instead alienating and dividing society.

    It’s not the “fault” of AfD and its voters that they grow, it’s the fault and failure of the status quo establishment to address basic yet important issues.

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