Far right looks for election breakthrough as Germany falters

Political tidal wave is disrupted through Germany. This is what the hard right -wing national alternative to Germany (AFD) believes firmly.

It was ranked “radical”, “racist” and “anti -democracy” by opponents. Local intelligence service in Germany says the party is “hostile to the constitution.”

But if opinion polls are right, AFD will become the second largest political force in Germany after the elections on Sunday.

This will be a major shift in tectonic panels, not only at home but all over Europe.

Why AFD such a big deal, you might ask? The parties have grown on the populist right to support in most of Europe.

AFD refers to Donald Trump as well. They share his “anti -employee” message, and immigration in support of immigration and fuel. They are also keen to stop sending weapons to Ukraine, and for tensions with Russia.

The Trump administration is supported in the back – publicly, for the anger of many Germans.

The thing is that Germany is not just another country.

It is the largest economy in Europe, one of its most influential countries. It still holds the weight of its Nazi past. Besides the United Kingdom and France, it is one of the three adults that helped form and secure the liberal regime and defense in Europe after both World War II and the Cold War.

It was unprecedented in Germany after the war, it was a very difficult right -wing party, while it was its determination as a threat to the Federal Republic and its liberal constitution.

The influential opposition leader in France, Marine Loeb, whose party is also the far right, has distanced from AFD on the European theater, apparently the judgment on its sites and its very extreme ethnic sexual reputation.

The long -awaited assumption between the main current at home and abroad was that the dark past of Germany may fortify it against any serious flirtation with the extreme right.

But there is a lot about these elections that make observers turn their view of Germany. I will return to AFD, which strongly deny the “extremist” sign.

The Germans have suffered from a bowl – in terms of self -image and the reputation of their international country.

For years, they used to admire – and envy them – as an economic power in Europe.

VorsPrung Durch TechnikIt is almost translated as “progress through technology”, it was the Audi Audi’s ads logo in the 1980s. For decades, Germany’s reputation was covered in international imagination.

The country was seen as modern, dynamic and technologically advanced. The auto industry was one of the main arteries that pump wealth into the economic heart in Germany.

But the basic faults have now been exposed in the German economic model.

It is widely seen Cable (Broken)-Relying heavily on intensive old energy industries, such as combustion motor and chemical industry.

Critics doubt that there is no visibility, or the ability to move with the times. Where was the serious investment in research and development? In large technology? In Amnesty International?

The clay worsened, during 16 years of Merkel as a consultant – stepped down in 2021 – Germany became increasingly dependent on:

• Exports to China
• Cheap gas from Russia
• American defense umbrella.

All this left Germany very exposed.

Donald Trump now says Europe is no longer able to rely on American security support and guarantee.

China has achieved rapid developments in the auto industry and dominates electric car technology. Less need so far for German imports.

Russia has widespread invasion of Ukraine, Germany, is scrambling for alternative energy sources. The purchase of liquid natural gas, from the United States and others, is costly, which leads to financial pressure on many German -energy companies.

The result: Germany’s economy is slow and sticky. As the largest member of the euro area, this has an effect that exceeds its limits. European allies are frustrated.

The German army is also a source of irritation (politely put it) among European neighbors. Berlin is a major force in the defense coalition, NATO. Donald Trump’s return to the White House means that Europeans need to provide more of their own capabilities.

German Chancellor Olaf Schools pledge a Zeitenwende – A turning point – for his country’s exhausted army, after Russia has invaded Ukraine on a large scale.

However, we are still told that the German army in a priestly state – less prepared to battle, three years ago.

This is partly due to its donations to Ukraine.

Germany, after the United States, was the largest donor of Ukraine’s military aid and most political parties in Germany supporting continued support for Kiev.

AFD takes a completely different position. “Peace” is one of the signs that you see in their gatherings.

They want a rapprochement with Russia, to immediately stop sending weapons to Ukraine, and instead using resources to build the armed forces in Germany to protect at home.

More than 4000 bridges in Germany are broken or in doubtful. I can barely believe my ears when I heard it for the first time. But this is the number reported in a country whose infrastructure has been quietly collapsed for years due to the lack of chronic – public and private investment.

Commitment to dates in Germany is horrific – worse than it was in the United Kingdom, which will amaze British passengers with weary.

Dirt is very unfortunate. The reception of the mobile phone is incomplete outside the cities and people are still known using fax!

But even if the recent German governments want to invest more, they have faced legal limits to spending.

The debt brakes were written in the German constitution after the financial crisis in 9/2008, with restrictions on new debts of no more than 0.35 % of GDP, with the exception of national emergency times.

The Germans no longer trust their policies anymore.

They saw the government spending a whirlpool at home and abroad. The euro currency, on which Germany relies, almost collapsed.

But what seemed to voters anchor for financial stability, now it seems to many, a mass of economic growth.

The rows on the reform of the debt brake were the last straw that led to the collapse of the coalition issued in Germany, and the sudden elections on Sunday.

But the new German government is careful: breaking the debt brakes will not be great. You need a majority of two -thirds in Parliament to change the German constitution.

Immigration is a major issue in Germany. And the winner of the big vote for AFD.

It is far from the only country to worry about immigration levels in Europe, but Germany alone took more than a million asylum seekers, especially from Syria and Afghanistan, during the migrant crisis in Europe in 2015/2016.

The country has also opened its doors to 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees.

Many Germans were proud of what they called “a culture of welcome”.

However, a group of attacks by asylum seekers from the Middle East and Afghanistan have renounced controversy on how to open the borders of Germany.

There were stab wounds, sickle attack, and a car pushed into civilians in the Christmas market and again in a recent trade union demonstration in Munich, where another young child was killed.

AFD insists that it is not racist or anti -immigration, and that anyone who is welcome in Germany if they arrive in legal means, obtain a job, contribute to society and respect local rules and culture.

The party says it will immediately deport all immigrants who are committing a crime, and anyone illegally arriving here.

This situation applauded by many AFD supporters who spoke to them in the gatherings in the period before Sunday’s elections – including young women who told me that they no longer feel safe in the streets.

It should also be noted that in May, a German court found that an “important part of AFD” believes that anyone with a immigrant heritage was not “properly German” – even if he had German citizenship. He concluded that AFD aims to “grant German citizens with a migration background only a reduced placement of its value.” This contradicts the German constitution.

Anxiety that they might lose voters in front of AFD because of the issue of immigration and borders, the German center moved to the right and the center of the center in their speech. This is a victory for AFD, whatever the result of the elections.

Even if it becomes the second largest force in Parliament, as expected, it is unlikely to reach the next government in Germany.

A post -World War II political system is designed in Germany so that no one party can control Parliament as the Nazis did after the first time in 1933.

The alliance construction is the name of the game. There has been a protection wall called since the end of World War II-a consensus between parties to maintain the maximum rule.

AFD insists as a governor and liberal, not a radical right power.

It refers to its growing support base, in the West, as well as East Germany, and among the younger voters as well. He accuses the opponents of trying to close it, close it and keep it out of power. This, he says, is hostile to democracy.

Elon Musk caught the headlines throughout Europe when it was announced in December that only AFD could save Germany.

The majority here still insists that their country needs to be saved from AFD.