Came across this today. Should this be an actual cause for concern ?

1 comment

1. It’s not great, but to keep things in some sort of perspective:

   1. The AfD once polled almost as high as this some years ago.
   2. The two elections it won were both local elections in tiny rural areas: mayor in a town with a population of 9,000, and district administrator in a district with a population of 56,000. Both times the AfD won in a run-off election a couple hundred votes ahead of the runner-up, with a voter turnout of around 60% (so 50% of the vote is more like 30% of the voters).
   3. Germany has learned a fair amount since 1932, and we now have much better protections against the dismantling of the democratic order.

   I mean, it’s a cause for concern, definitely. But I don’t see the start of the inexorable slide into totalitarianism. The governing coalition needs to get a grip on itself and stop bickering, and instead start bringing in effective policies to deal with things like inflation and the wealth gap.