An eastern German region was voting Sunday in an election that could bring to power the first far-right state government in the nation’s post-World War II history.
The vote for the state legislature in Saxony-Anhalt, a region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin, has gained outsized prominence because it represents the best chance yet of a governor’s post for the far-right, anti-migration Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
That would be the biggest prize in the party’s 13-year history, at a time of widespread discontent with an unpopular national government that has yet to persuade voters it can get the country’s sluggish economy moving. It would be at least a symbolic blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose center-right party has led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years.
Feeling like mainstream parties don’t represent you does not make it ok to vote for a nazi party. This whole protest vote theory has not only been disproven, it also serves as an easy excuse for those voting for AfD.
The simple truth is that people want easy answers and the AfD is providing them, same as what happened in the US with Trump. It doesn’t matter that it makes no sense what they’re saying or that it has been proven time and time again that they are completely incompetent. It’s textbook populism. They convince people that immigrants are the problem, because they’re easily convincable.
I believe the only way to get around this is to actually go to these places and make people see that voting for the nazis is against their interest and that’s indeed something that established parties have failed to do.
Well, I’ve made my argument and the votes are in. It’s okay to vote a legal party, as they are. I agree it does not fix anything (nor would I ever vote for them) but that is what you get for leaving people behind.
By not addressing this or trying to argue it away as per your statement it has and will only get progressively worse.