The AfD's results in East Germany have deep roots in the fact that the East was always poorer, less industrial, was sabotaged by the West in the Cold War, and then subjected to the ravages of neoliberalism after the fall of the wall.
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
That’s the inscrutable thing for me: AfD is staunchly neoliberal! Like, to a significant extent. They don’t even have the cover of some anti neoliberal slogans.
The magic trick that the far-right is always performing is one where they make it appear that hurting “the enemy” will benefit you, the supposed Real Citizen, when really that’s never what’s happening. It doesn’t matter if there’s actual material benefit being offered when there’s an effigy to burn.
IMHO historically, more complicated than that. Until mid-20th c, major (heavy) industrial centers were concentrated in North (East). That remained post-war but a significant % was claimed by USSR as reparations & nationalized + USSR (re)invested little if anything in remaining private industries
That economic separation continued to deepen between West & GDR markets, & “Western sabotage” can’t be solely blamed. Ofc it was exacerbated by Cold War geopolitics & E/W market differences, but also by GDR’s continuing nationalization & centralization of industry & agriculture cycles of reforms.
So by unification, the East was already far behind due to sev factors & over decades. & like you indicted, that eastern deindustrialization has only con’td until present (akin to the Am Rust Belt) & by all measures the economics of that has contributed significantly to the rise of the far right
Also, IMHO domestic party politics is a thing too, just like here & elsewhere. The far right opposition needs a message & results that successfully counteracts RW bs. Personally, I think “not being fascist” shld be enough. But sadly that’s not the case in East German states like it wasn’t in the US
This is just straightforwardly true. The former borders are still noticeable even at first glance today, the differences in the quality of roads, how the villages look, how the countryside is managed, are pretty stark.
No defence of the Stalinist regime in the East. It was authoritarian, socially reactionary, but with social provision. After reunification East Germany was subjected to a socially liberal regime which eroded social provision & offered hollow, weighted democracy that seemed to improve things little.
There’s also the fact that the West German policy of comprehensive Holocaust education didn’t come to East Germany until after reunification in 1990. I’m curious as to how much of AfD’s support comes from Gen X and elder Millennials.
I think this sums it up nicely. Small footnote. In the mid-naughts the federal government also changed its funding premise; instead of pouring money into all regions equally (‘water can principle’) it decided to focus on the main cities (‘beacon principle’). Merkel’s debt brake then did the rest.
Comments