What was expected in the run-up to the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia happened on Sunday. More than 40 percent of the votes in the two states went to populists from the right-wing extremist AfD and Sahra Wagenknecht’s BSW. The voters thus presented the politicians with a difficult task.
For the first time, the AfD is the strongest force after state elections. In Thuringia, the right-wing party achieved this with a large lead over the CDU. In Saxony, it was neck and neck with the CDU. Due to the lack of a partner, it will probably not govern in any federal state.
Not least because the former left-wing party Wagenknecht absolutely does not want to cooperate with the AfD. It does not want to be lumped together with the party, which is considered decidedly far-right by the respective Office for the Protection of the Constitution in both Thuringia and Saxony.
The BSW itself does not fit into any familiar box. Wagenknecht follows a similar stance to the AfD (almost an ‘AfD-Light’) when it comes to restricting migration and rejecting military aid to Ukraine, but is more left-wing when it comes to social and economic policy. According to pollsters, the BSW relies more on left-wing voters – while the AfD can count on a significant percentage of supporters with far-right views.
Broadsides against the traffic light coalition in Berlin
What both have in common, however, is their self-image as “parties against the above.” They fired sharp shots at those in power, especially the traffic light coalition in Berlin. Both the AfD and the BSW deny it virtually any ability to solve problems. They paint the state of the country in the darkest colors and offer themselves as saviors. “Our country is not in good shape,” reads the BSW’s founding manifesto.
Moreover, 34 years after the reunification of the GDR and West Germany, frustration is breaking out. In an ARD survey, three out of four respondents in Saxony and Thuringia said that politics and the economy were still too strongly determined by West Germans and that East Germans were still ‘second-class citizens’ in many places.
Both parties are increasing doubts about the ‘system’
The AfD and BSW each in their own way reinforced doubts about the ‘system’, about parliamentary processes, about conventional media and about freedom of expression. At the end of the election campaign on Saturday, AfD leader Björn Höcke spoke of “cartel party government” and media that had been “bought”. No matter who you vote for, all parties “disintegrate our Germany like a bar of soap under a jet of water”, he explained. Only the AfD is different.
For her part, Wagenknecht said during the election campaign that the BSW was running “so that the people who want to protest get angry, so that the people who want change, so that they have a serious alternative to choose from and that really has changed something in their interests and puts pressure on the federal parties.”
Without a partner, the AfD remains merely the opposition. The BSW, on the other hand, could soon find itself in a position where it can prove itself in its governmental responsibility. However, this would require combining oil and water: the potential partner CDU is sometimes miles away from the positions of the BSW…
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
