{"id":246816,"date":"2025-07-08T02:14:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T02:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/246816\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T02:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T02:14:11","slug":"foment-us-style-polarization-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/246816\/","title":{"rendered":"foment US-style polarization \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Needing the far left as a foil<\/p>\n

For the AfD, the clearest political foil is the Left, a far-left party that surged in popularity among young voters<\/a> ahead of February\u2019s national election. AfD leaders see that party\u2019s rise as weakening center-left parties, including the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which governs in coalition with Merz\u2019s conservatives. The far-left\u2019s strength will force center-left parties to pivot further left, goes the thinking, making centrist alliances across the political spectrum more difficult.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe separation from the radical left, which holds positions that are unacceptable to the majority of Germans, makes it easier for the AfD to position itself as a bourgeois-conservative force,\u201d reads the strategy paper. \u201cThe AfD and the Left form the two ideological poles of the social debate. As the antithesis to the ideological and woke left, the AfD can sharpen its bourgeois profile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s firewall blocking far-right parties from power has been far stronger than in other European countries on account of the country\u2019s Nazi past. But the AfD\u2019s rise has increasingly tested the firewall \u2014\u00a0and cracks have emerged, particularly in local government<\/a> across eastern Germany, where centrists have cooperated with the party. Merz\u2019s move last January to accept AfD support for passing tough migration legislation<\/a> led to fears the firewall was about to fall, unleashing a fierce debate that struck at the core of the country\u2019s postwar identity.<\/p>\n

\"\"Afd\u2019s strategy appears to follow Trump, who often depicts center-left opponents as \u201cradical left lunatics.\u201d | Ralf Hirschberger\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Though the firewall remained intact \u2014 albeit damaged \u2014 the AfD wants to make it increasingly tough on Merz and other conservatives to maintain it. The AfD \u201cwill launch proposals and initiatives that will meet with a high level of approval\u201d of center-right voters, especially those disappointed with Merz\u2019s coalition with the SPD, according to the strategy paper.<\/p>\n

The aim, at first, is not necessarily to win all those voters, but to make the firewall increasingly unpopular among them. This, in turn, would force conservative leaders to drop their opposition to governing in coalition with the AfD.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the AfD strategy paper says the party will try to win new support within some of the voting blocs where it is weakest, including among women, older voters, academics and people living in cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese groups are not homogeneous and cannot be addressed uniformly,\u201d reads the paper. In order to \u201cwin them over to the AfD, we need a socio-demographic microanalysis of these groups. We need to identify subgroups to which we can build a bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Needing the far left as a foil For the AfD, the clearest political foil is the Left, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[31,33,2000,299,95665,1105,1945,1824,2348,2817,6657,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-246816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-democracy","9":"tag-elections","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-far-left","13":"tag-far-right","14":"tag-friedrich-merz","15":"tag-germany","16":"tag-history","17":"tag-intelligence","18":"tag-migration","19":"tag-rights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114815203291215975","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}