The German Federal Elections — a call for a politics of courage
This blog article aims to tackle the well-known German Angst (“German fear“) and calls for a turn towards a politics of courage.
Germany did it. For the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, the German people gave every political camp its place in parliament. From 2017 onwards, we have to deal with a comprehensive bunch of political parties. And it doesn’t matter at all, whether we like it or not.
The socialist left voted for Die Linke. Supporters of green politics voted for Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. Voters on the moderate left opted for SPD. Moderately conservatives gave their voice to CDU/CSU. Supporters of Liberalism voted for FDP. And protest voters as well as decisively conservatives & right-wingers put their faith into the AfD.
Yes, the times they are a-changin’. The fragmented German parliament mirrows our modern Western societies: pluralistic and highly fragmented. And so is the German society. The big-tent parties on the political left and right struggle more and more to address the very specific needs of their pluralistic pool of voters. Most probably, that’s nothing really new for you, dear reader. So, why this introduction instead of directly jumping into a talk about the disaster for the Social Democratic Party and its rationale? Or about potential coalitions and policies for the next four years?
A step towards normality
Well, this introduction aims to clarify one thing: While still having in mind the special German history, the voters‘ decision to take a right-wing party into their parliament is rather a step towards normality than a threatening shift to the right. If every other nation in Europe has its right-wing party, why should German politics be spared of it? A minority of Europeans across our continent opts for this answer to the disruptive nature of Globalisation, not to forget the increased levels on non-EU migration, with all its advantages and disadvantages. Germans resisted and feared this option for a longer time than others. However, the refugee crisis with its enormous challenges, combined with a government that poorly addressed the concerns of many Germans, gave the final push for a political party like the AfD.
Yes, we should take this political party — and especially its voters and their concerns — seriously. However, there is no reason for any kind of fear. More than 87 percent of the elctorate did not vote for this kind of alternative. In many cities as well as rural regions in the Western part of the country, the AfD didn’t even manage to reach seven or eight percent of the electorate. But let’s be clear and avoid playing this numbers game. Let’s rather take a look at the people who voted for this party.
What AfD voters fear — and what the average voters think about this
According to an ARD poll (first Germany TV program), two third of AfD voters didn’t vote for AfD due to a deep political convincement. The three most important reasons were the fear of terrorism (70%), criminality (61%) and the migration caused by refugees (60%). Asked about their concerns, almost all AfD voters (> 90%) mentioned the increasing influence of Islam and the fear of losing their ‘German culture‘. This is not exclusively the opinion of AfD voters only. Every second German agrees with the statement, that the AfD understands better than others, that many people in Germany feel not as safe as they did in the past. Almost 40% agree with the party’s goal to limit the influence of Islam in Germany. And more than every third German agrees with the party‘s goal to consequently limit the refugee migration. At the same time, 86% of Germans critizise the AfD for not decisively rejecting nationalist views inside the party. This proves: The majority of the people with a critical opinion towards these issues — AfD voters or not — is far from being racist, nationalist or even right wing.
While thinking about the fairly high levels of concern, we have to bear in mind the impact of the German media which is generally biased towards migration- and diversity-friendly positions. Even a recent study, charged by the trade union affiliated Otto Brenner Foundation criticized the lack of neutrality and critical reports during the peak of the refugee crisis in 2015. If we remove this stark impact of the media in easing the fear of the people, even more Germans would supposedly join the choir of critique and fear.
A challenge for Progressives and Liberals
All this shows, that there seem to exist valid reasons for the average, non-nationalist but rather liberal and progressive German to be critical towards these developments and our current — perceived or actual — cultural challenges.
And here we go again: In more and more European societies, people start debating this. In many countries, especially in Austria and in the Scandinavian countries, social democratic parties push this debate forward and thereby remove it from right-wing conservative/populist parties. This is good and important. It is the task for liberal and progressive politics, to fight for the liberal values of our Western societies: The equality of sexes and a decisive no to violence, the freedom of expression and a decisive no to discrimination for one’s sexual orientation or ethnicity. We shall not leave this to the political right. This is a genuine challenge for social democratic and liberal politics.
Instead, we should finally end the German Angst when it comes to talking about the politics of migration and culture. There is the need for a German Mut to openly define our liberal culture and its liberal values — joined by the people that came to Germany in the last decades. There is the need for a German Mut to openly speak about highly unpleasent issues like crime rates, parallel societies and belief systems that stand in sharp contrast to our liberal and peaceful values. There are no easy and pleasant solutions to these issues. And above all, they will not be one-sided: Neither the typically leftist agenda (better education and employment opportunities etc.), nor the typically right-wing agenda (ending migration, sending people back, banning symbols) are sufficient by them alone.
We need every good idea of both political camps, reasonably implemented at best by progressives and liberals. We have to end illegal migration and we have to be more careful in terms of giving asylum status — but we need a reasonable legal migration system as well. We need to fight decisively against political Islam and remove any kind of financial support from Erdogan-loyal mosques and organisations — but we need to support liberal Islamic scholars, Imams and Mosques financially and politically as well.
But above all, we need to start talking in a respectful way: Optimists are not evil nation-hating globalists. Critical people are not evil fascists. What both unites is, that they care about what’s going on in our country as well as in the world.
The need for courage and respect
The new diversity in the German parliament can be chance: Getting together and mutually respecting different perceptions while working on durable solutions to our challenges. Our overwhelmingly liberal majority in society and parliament will be even more confronted with unsolved challenges in the months and years up to come. We now have the need to debate and a definite chance to act. When putting courage instead of fear, when putting respect instead of hate, Germany can and will do it.
About the author: Henning Schmidt (25) is a proud Graduate of Democracy (’15). He obtained his MA in Political Economy from King’s College London and works as a consultant in Germany.
Disclaimer: This article reflects the author’s opinion it might not reflect the whole group’s opinion.
