Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation.

The far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party scored a landslide victory this past Sunday in Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state election, although it fell short of a majority in its bid to form the first far right state government in the country’s postwar history. It won 43.8 percent of the vote, more than doubling its share of the vote five years ago in the region, while Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union slumped to a historic low of 17.2 percent, down from 37.1 percent in 2021.

This shocking result has been a long time in the making. Neofascist ideology has been creeping into Germany’s mainstream political arena for the past few decades even though the country’s domestic intelligence agency has classified the AfD as an “extremist party” because its leaders have espoused far right rhetoric. Indeed, the party, which has grown rapidly since it was formed in 2013, is not hiding its racism and authoritarianism and has been quite blunt in its rejection of a liberal, pluralistic society.

Neofascist ideology has been creeping into Germany’s mainstream political arena for the past few decades.

Neofascist ideology has been creeping into Germany’s mainstream political arena for the past few decades.

Unsurprisingly, AfD leaders are exuberant over their party’s election success in Saxony-Anhalt and seem to think that the tide has finally turned to the point that winning in the next national election with at least 40 percent of the vote is now within reach. Meanwhile, the leaders of Spain and Portugal’s largest far right parties rushed to congratulate the AfD for its victory in Saxony-Ahhalt, as well as Hungary’s former prime minister Viktor Orbán. So did Elon Musk, posting a resounding “Well done!” on his social media platform X in response to a post from AfD’s co-leader Alice Weidel.

How realistic is the prospect that Germany may have a far right federal government by 2029? A recent poll indicates that if national elections were held today, the AfD would indeed emerge victorious with 28 percent of the vote. The reasons for this unsettling development are complex and may go beyond pure economics, although the state of the economy figures prominently into the equation, especially in east Germany, where Saxon-Anhalt is located, and where the AfD is particularly strong.

More than three decades after Germany’s 1990 reunification, there is still a wide gap between east and west. As numerous studies have pointed out, “East Germany is still 20% to 25% poorer than West Germany.” People living in East Germany have realized that convergence under neoliberalism has proved to be a mirage. Under the massive privatization scheme that was launched after 1990 by the government agency Treuhandanstalt, East Germany’s entire state-owned economy was privatized while its industrial base was decimated as thousands of publicly owned enterprises were closed or sold, leading to massive unemployment and triggering a demographic crisis as young and educated people moved westward in search of jobs and better living conditions.

Trump Defends Far Right AfD Party After........

© Truthout