Is Merkel’s Germany The Canary In The Coalmine?
When the Germans go right, the rest of Europe gets wary.
Whilst the eyes of the world are glued to the battle for the US Presidency the ‘Alternative fur Deutschland’ (AFD) party have nailed a first-place result in Thuringia’s state elections in East Germany. Neighbouring Saxony narrowly averted going hard right because of a surge of Conservative Christian Democrats coming out of the woodwork.
There’s a bubbling heat in Europe and when the Germans move right, there’s serious trouble afoot. I hasten to add it isn’t because they’ll be in the Sudetenland before tea-time, rather their national history between 1932–1945 has left them with a strong aversion to right-wing movements.
If the Germans move right, the rest of Europe holds its breath.
The AFD aren’t your average group, across their tenure on the German political scene they were labelled an extremist party by the coalition parties in the centre. This extremist party’s vote share now represents around 17% of the population of Germany.
A rise mirrored in other countries across Europe.
This is a worrying development for those of us in the political centre. We’ve got some intense collective side-eye at Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, and Nigel Farage…
