Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Thuringia Gives Neo-Nazis a Plurality
While Benjamin Netanyahu was busy putting the nazi in Ashkenazi, the people of Thuringia in Germany decided to go back to the 1930s and vote for the far right. Alternative fur Deutschland (the grandchildren of Hitler) finished in first place in the election for the lander (provincial) parliament. Finishing first is not the same, however, as winning in parliamentary politics. One must secure a majority. It appears that the AfD will not be able to form a government with any other political party because none of them find the AfD as an acceptable political partner. So, it may find itself the largest party in the assembly and the official opposition.
Thuringia is a lander in the eastern party of Germany, in the former Soviet zone of occupation that the world sometimes called East Germany. It is an area that has a small population, and it is economically a laggard. It is no surprise that the voters there are angry at Berlin and the federal government. It is the exact sort of place that the neo-Nazis and Communists flourish.
On Sunday, the AfD got 32.8% of the vote (the Nazis in 1933 got 33.1%). The conservative CDU was second with 23.6% of the vote. The logical coalition between these two right-wing parties is not going to happen, however, because the CDU will not work with the AfD. On the one hand, collaboration is not a nice word when it comes to dealing with Nazis or their grandchildren. On the other, working with the AfD could weaken the CDU further.
Over on the other side of the spectrum, the left wing populist BSW won 15.9% of the vote. The Left (an amalgam of left wing loonies and Communists) managed 13.1%. The SPD, the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, barely made it into the assembly, surpassing the 5% threshold by 1.1%. The Free Democrats and the Greens came up short and have no seats.
With these results almost mirrored in Saxony where the CDU beat the AfD 31.9% to 30.6%, Chancellor Scholz called for the other parties to form a firewall against the AfD. If no one works with them, they cannot govern. "All democratic parties are now called upon to form stable governments without right-wing extremists," he said.
That call seems to have been implemented already. Deutsche Welle reported "The CDU's national general secretary, Carsten Linnemann, said that "voters in both states knew that we wouldn't form a coalition with the AfD, and it will stay that way. We are very, very clear on this,' he said."
Naturally, this has the AfD upset. DW further noted, “AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said that voters in Thuringia and Saxony had given her party a 'very clear mandate to govern'. She urged parties to ignore Mr Scholz's call to build government coalitions without the AfD, and said that doing so would "undermine the democratic participation of large sections of the population". "Firewalls are undemocratic," Ms Weidel added.
Ms. Weidel betrays the undemocratic nature of her party. Winning less than a third of the vote is not a mandate. There is nothing democratic about a government that does not have a majority of the seats in the assembly. If the leaders of the other parties do not want to work with the AfD, it would be grossly undemocratic to let the AfD have power.
It may well be that the other parties cannot form a government even without the AfD. That has to be negotiated. If they cannot, another election may be necessary. That would be most democratic. What is troubling is that one has no faith that a second election would bring a better result for the people of Thuringia. Of course, if that is how they vote, they deserve what happens to them.
© Copyright 2024 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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