2016-09-07

AfD Wins Big in German Election, No Competition Yet

AfD is on its way to becoming the sole majority party in Germany if no other party is willing to take up the issues championed by the party. Merkel's response was to double down on the policies propelling AfD.
Reuters: Merkel strikes back, defends migrant policy after election rout

One opinion piece gets it right.
DW: Opinion: Why is the AfD so successful?
The popularity of the AfD, Germany's conservative populist party, would wane as the number of incoming refugees dropped off. That was Chancellor Angela Merkel's assessment in March, shortly before three state elections saw major gains for the Alternative for Germany. It became the second-strongest party in Saxony-Anhalt and, though refugee numbers have since slowed, is now second-strongest in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania following Sunday's elections there.

The only surprising thing is that people are surprised. Apparently, Merkel and other political leaders have outright missed the sociological sea change that's come over Germany in the last year. Merkel, her government and most of the parliamentary opposition have for months knowingly surrendered state control over migration without any law being passed to regulate it.

Germans never asked

On a moralistic whim, Merkel has turned Germany into an experiment that will affect generations to come - for the worse. Germans were never asked if they wanted this or were prepared to make the necessary sacrifices, both financial and cultural. There is a difficult-to-pinpoint sense of no longer feeling at home in your own country. In response, many politicians have rejected this feeling of discomfort, or at least advocated to keep it to one's self, but certainly not make a political issue out of it.
The sense of no longer feeling at home in your own country extends across many nations and touches many issues because the leadership of many countries is not ruling with the interest of the public. Meanwhile, the public is drifter further and further away from the leadership, as this chart posted in This One Chart Explains the Next 10 Years of Political Change shows:

UKIP was created to leave the European Union. It ended up becoming an anti-immigration party. It won a shock victory, which won it a Brexit referendum, and then won the referendum.
AfD was created to leave the euro. It ended up becoming an anti-migrant party. It won a shock victory...
Trump ran for president and took a strong stance on illegal immigration in his first speech. He won a shock victory over the Republican field...

Whatever happens in the short-term, the trend is firmly in favor of the upstart opposition parties.

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