GERMANY’S nationalist and anti-immigration AfD party is now holding 152 seats in the country’s federal parliament, the Bundestag, making it the largest opposition party. It also holds hundreds of seats in state assemblies.
The latest two state elections held this month left German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), securing only 4.9 per cent of the vote in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the lowest vote recorded by the party in any German state since World War II and not enough to secure a seat.
AfD won 38.2%, up a massive 21%, the SPU (Germany’s version of the ALP) 35.5%, the more Leftist Die Linke party 6.5% and the Grune (Greens) 5.7%, again leaving AfD without an absolute majority.
These results are eerily similar to One Nation’s recent polling, with the AfD edging ahead of the major socialist party and the mainstream conservatives falling away.
The spectacular rise of AfD also parallels One Nation’s sweeping win of the by-election for the Labor stronghold of Secret Harbour in Western Australia and earlier in the year, the prize Coalition seat of Farrer in southern NSW.
AfD lead candidate Leif-Erik Holm claimed the right to form the next state government and said AfD would “naturally also talk to all the other parties” in an effort “to get things moving”.
Up until now, all the other German parties have refused to go into coalition with the AfD but if the party continues to be denied government, it will only further bolster the unstoppable rise of the AfD’s nationalist populism until it gains outright majorities at state and federal levels.
The rise of nationalist populist parties in Europe is sounding a dire warning for Australia’s so-called centre-right Liberals and centre-left Labor Party. The Labor Socilist Left and Greens might take some comfort in the fact that the far Left Die Linke party took first place in Berlin as CDU slumped.
As we reported previously, AfD previously won the largest share of votes in Saxony-Anhalt’s regional elections two weeks ago – securing 44% of the vote but still falling just short of reaching a full majority.
Merz described the result for his party as a “disaster”, yet refused to step back from his government’s “reform agenda” and insisting that Germany’s political and economic troubles rendered tough and potentially unpopular measures more urgent.
“What needs to be done now requires backbone, steadfastness, and patience,” Mr Merz said in a statement shortly after the exit polls were broadcast. “I will demonstrate these qualities as chairman of the CDU and, above all, as chancellor of our country.”
In Berlin, ARD’s exit poll projected the CDU to finish second with 20 per cent, behind the Left party on 24.5 per cent.
A media report said the CDU’s heavy defeat to the AfD in the September 6 election in Saxony-Anhalt “shocked many Germans who believed the country had built resilience against nationalism and ideas of racial superiority through post-war education and anti-persecution legislation.”
On Sunday, the AfD was projected to secure significant advances across both states, gathering 37 per cent in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and 15.7 per cent in Berlin, according to ARD, though it remains well short of forming a regional government.
The AfD’s national co-leader, Tino Chrupalla, told ZDF television that “the chancellor’s statement today really was more than feeble. He announced that he’d carry on as before, instead of finally drawing the consequences and resigning.”
Merz also stated that his government’s measures would serve as “the antidote to the poison of authoritarianism, which is penetrating ever deeper into our society as the fascination with authoritarianism grows”.
