AfD and BSW Gains in Saxony and Thuringia: Left and Right are Anti-Immigration in Germany
Kanako Mita and Michiyo Tanabe
Modern Tokyo Times
Alternative for Germany (AfD) is a right-wing nationalist party – while the newly created Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is left-wing. However, both political parties oppose the war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation – and both are anti-immigration.
The AfD and BSW promise to put Germans first. Accordingly, the AfD and BSW did well in the state elections of Thuringia and Saxony (unlike the abysmal showing of the ruling parties) because they connected with ordinary people.
Sahra Wagenknecht earlier this year said, “I believe that we simply represent and embody what many parties no longer stand for: enlightened conservatism in the sense of preserving traditions, security — on the streets and in public places, but also jobs, health care, and pensions. The need for security, peace and justice has found a new political home with us.”
She also said the political Left is “too focused on diet, pronouns, and the perception of racism” as opposed to ongoing “poverty and an ever-growing gap between rich and poor.”
Several years ago Wagenknecht said, “There shouldn’t be any neighborhoods… where natives are in the minority.”
In Thuringia, the AfD won their first state election victory after winning 32.8% – the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came second with 23.6% and the BSW came third with 15.8%. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Chancellor Olaf Scholz obtained only 6.1%.
Co-leader Alice Weidel of the AfD said the regional state election results were a clear “requiem” for the three parties who currently govern Germany.
Weidel said, “The government in Berlin should ask itself if it can even continue to govern. This question of fresh elections should be posed at least following the [upcoming] election in Brandenburg, because things cannot carry on like this.”
The BBC reports, “The asylum issue was re-ignited nationally little more than a week before the vote, when three people were murdered at a street festival at Solingen in western Germany, and a Syrian man facing deportation was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack.”
In Saxony, the CDU came first with 31.9% of the vote – the AfD came second with 30.6% and the BSW came third with 11.8%.
Thuringia’s AfD leader Björn Höcke said, “For the first time in its still young party history, the AfD has become the strongest parliamentary force after 11 years. And that fills me with great, great, great pride and satisfaction.”
Knowing that other parties seek to exclude the AfD from power, he continued, “Whoever wants stability in Thuringia has to integrate the AfD.”
Overall, despite major differences between the AfD and BSW when it comes to welfare (and other important issues), both parties are connecting with people who are tired of identity politics, mass immigration, instability, fake refugees, the welfare system being abused, high crime, and the menace of Islamism.
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