Merkel’s extremist legacy in Germany: Alternative for Germany gains in Thuringia
Sawako Utsumi and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Chancellor Angela Merkel could have left a rich legacy in Germany before her policy of welcoming uncontrolled migration. Thus, the recent election in Thuringia highlights the real legacy of Merkel. This applies to a boost for extremists on the left and right. Therefore, her political party, the Christian Democrats (CDU), is facing self-inflicted damage because many Germans feel marginalized.
Of course, Thuringia isn’t over populous with roughly two million people. Despite this, it is a pattern seen before whereby the two main parties are struggling. Thereby, in Thuringia, left-wing and right-wing parties won 54 percent of the vote when combined. Thus, the Left Party polled 31 percent and the Alternative for Germany (AfD – right-wing to far-right) won 23.4 percent.
Hence, Merkel’s CDU came third with 21.8 percent. This means the party slumped from first place to third. Equally disturbing for the center ground, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) polled a very poor 8.2 percent. Therefore, it is clear that both main parties are suffering from recent convulsions – even if the decline of the SPD began in 2009 and is more noticeable.
The Independent reports, “It marked a significant slump in CDU support compared to 2014, when the party won the highest share of the vote with 33.5 per cent.”
However, turning back to the AfD, then clearly this right-wing party was boosted by Merkel’s “open-door” migration policy. Of course, if genuine refugees had fled to Germany, then the AfD support base would not be so powerful. In other words, if embattled Alawites, Middle East Christians, the Yazidis, or refugees who have been in camps for decades had been helped, then the backlash would have been dramatically reduced.
Instead, vast numbers of economic migrants entered the vacuum and the burden became momentous. At the same time, several Islamist terrorist attacks and horrendous crimes by fake refugees occurred. On top of this, several deplorable harassment cases happened against German women. Thus, with bread and butter issues already being problematic for poorer sections of society, then this became magnified. Therefore, the AfD entered a new vacuum created by Merkel.
Paul Ziemiak, General Secretary of the CDU, uttered, “It is a bitter result for the CDU … and this is a bitter day for the democratic center of Germany in Thuringia.”
Hence, given recent state elections that have witnessed a powerful share of the vote for the AfD, then the center in Germany is suffering. This especially applies to the SPD. However, the CDU in recent times is also suffering based on Merkel’s shortsighted policy of alienating people. Thus, many people feel marginalized by the political elites of the CDU and SPD. Therefore, the legacy of Merkel is tainted because she enabled extremism to enter the body politic of Germany to a higher level.
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