Right-wing populism in Germany

For many decades, right-wing populism used to be on the fringes in Germany. Amongst other things, this might be conditioned by our history and the reason, that such ideas are (rightly) stigmatized. Additionally, our conservative parties like the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and its sister party in Bavaria, the CSU (Christian Social Union) could integrate right-wing potential into their electoral program. This also explains the statement of the former Bavarian prime minister and federal minister for defense and finance, Franz Josef Strauß (CSU), who said in 1986, that there should never be a right-wing party democratically legitimated that is more right than the CSU. His statement should be seen in the context of the starting dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc that firstly led to an increase of refugees in Germany. In the mid-90s, shortly after the German reunification, this number of refugees and immigrants conditioned xenophobic violence (Rostock-Lichtenhagen) and a strengthening of right (Republikaner) and extreme-right (NPD) parties, which were all insignificant before. Whilst this parties lost their acceptance in the Western part quite soon, especially the NPD won seats in the East-German state parliaments in many elections. One reason for this are the still existing economic differences between East and West. Anyhow, all over Germany right-extremism was a phenomenon of the 90s and decreased with increasing wealth. Even with the introduction of the Euro as currency (although many said that everything got more expensive) and the intensified integration in the European Union, political beliefs were quite constant. The first transformation of these beliefs started with the financial crisis in 2008 and the resulting European debt crisis in 2009. Founded 2013 as a eurosceptical party (especially concerning the currency), the economist Bernd Lucke established the AfD (engl. Alternative for Germany) against the policy of the government and claiming a currency reform (with the possible integration of countries, which can be compared in their economical power). Also, the remaining program used to be a mix of conservative and economic liberalism ideas. But the most important point, which led to the current appearance of right-wing populism, is the European migrant crisis, starting 2014.

Already that year, PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the islamization of the occident) constituted itself as a protest movement on the street, firstly claiming right-populistic paroles openly in the newer German history. Identifying for this movement, which mainly appears in the Eastern states again, is the refusal of established media (“lying press”), the orientation towards Russia and Russian media (also the wish to have a strong leader like Putin), insulting the government and politicians as unworldly elite, the believing in conspiracy theories (especially in ones which may explain some of their ideas) and finally the proclamation, that “We are the people”, however even their tacit consent is just about 17% and therefore not representative for the people.

Many factors now led to the development, that since 2014, the AfD adopted demands from PEGIDA and integrated responsible persons into the party structures. Thus, AfD became the main organ of right-wing populism in Germany. Even its founder, Bernd Lucke, was pushed out of the party. But it is a though a mistake to say, that AfD and PEGIDA are congruent. Interestingly many former liberals, conservatives, social democrats and even leftists joined the party. Especially amongst former nonvoters, AfD is quite successful. As of March 2017, AfD has representatives in 10 of 16 state parliaments and it is more than probable, that the party is going to get seats at the federal parliament in September 2017 (latest surveys evaluated to about 10% for AfD).

From here on, the argumentation of this text is getting hypothetical: How can we explain this success (in Saxony-Anhalt for example the AfD is the second strongest party with 24,3% of the votes in the last election) without neglecting a “natural” rightist population? Basically, you can say that populism in general offers putative easy solutions for difficult problems and draws a binary world. For every problem, there are two solutions. One is right, the other one is wrong. It is us against you, and “you” is everyone who is not fitting in their concept (like the “elites” or the intellectuals). If you look at the social background of AfD voters, most of them are badly educated, working in precarious jobs, and belong to the so called “losers of globalization”. And many of them know about their situation and their status so they differentiate between themselves and the “elite”. Media, one important actor in a democratic discourse, is made by the elite and therefore also only for the elite. The ability for reflecting solutions and ideas is missing, so it is quite easy for populists to catch them with populistic propaganda and placed misinformation. As already said, most of them want to have a strong leader as well, someone with whom they can identify. The political system in most of the democratic states is complex and institutionalized, especially in representative (and federal) democracies like Germany. And of course, there is also a lack of identification with the European Union, which is demonized by populist politicians of every political orientation and state. Facts are replaced by “alternative facts”, just to make your own credo stringent.

It is quite interesting to see that during the last weeks, AfD suffered from the nomination of Martin Schulz (SPD) as candidate for the chancellorship. Schulz is someone who fits into this world view, for example he does not have any A levels and pictures himself as the normal, average German. Certainly, he is not some right-wing populist, but he also uses (left-wing) populism to catch electors. In a nutshell, you can therefore say, that many people are attracted by populism in general.

However, finally I would like to share some thoughts on why especially right-wing populism is so abhorrent. First, it is the missing will and ability to reflect, although this is not just in particular a problem of right-wing populism. And it is also the narrow ridge between right-wing populism and right-wing extremism. How many reception camps have to burn, how much violence is done just because those ideas are shared by some people? And especially in Eastern Germany, rightists are overrepresented. There, it is morally wrong to agitate against refugees and foreigners just because many of them never paid or did not pay into the German social system for many years, but they still get benefits and social aid. Of course, they are not responsible for being born in the GDR, but are refugees who happen to being born in an area of conflict. Is help something you just get, if you are of “German blood”? This makes me angry, because I like a refugee ten times more than a self-proclaimed “German” who never contributed to society. In this terms, right-wing populism promotes racism in a very subtle way. And even if this text suggests it to be a problem of Eastern Germany (and I would be happy if it was one, just for making me feel better), we also have these problems in Western Germany, even in the state I live in, which is one of the wealthiest in all of Europe. Concluding, it should be also mentioned, that most of politicians from the AfD are actually also members of the “elite” they are blaming stuff on. They are well educated and they know how to manipulate the public opinion. Applying institutional theory, they also profit from the political system and so they want to keep it as well, just to save these profits.