Germany | The far-right got a new boost from the energy crisis – “Gas will become cheap when you get it from Russia again”

Berlin

“Our our country first”, demanded the signs of the demonstrators in Berlin on Saturday as Donald Trump’s troops in the United States.

Germany’s national-conservative opposition party AfD, which also has far-right elements, has brought loads of people from different parts of the country to the capital. Thousands of angry people have gathered in front of the Reichstag, the parliament building. The AfD demonstration gathered 8,000 people. 1,400 people participated in counter-demonstrations organized in various parts of Berlin.

Before this, nothing has been heard about the AfD for a long time. Now the energy crisis has brought new energy to the party.

The AfD received a real support boost from the 2015 refugee crisis. However, Germany was not so overwhelmed by the emigrants that it would have carried it. Support remained around ten percent for a long time.

In the corona crisis, the party joined the front of vaccine critics and opponents of restrictions. Now it has a new reason to challenge the government, and it seems to be working better.

According to the AfD, the energy crisis is “homemade” and a consequence of the green energy transition.

The same argument is used by right-wing populists in Finland as well.

Read more: Is the reason for high electricity prices the green transition, the market or Russia? This is how the experts judge

The AfD demands more nuclear power, the rejection of the green energy policy, and “if possible” a return to the import of Russian energy.

Nord Stream 2 is welcomed here, if only it is possible to repair it for use. Germany’s green economy and energy minister Robert Habeck is AfD’s number one enemy image.

“Habeck Weg [Habeck pois]”, the crowd shouts.

Protesters in the crowd the atmosphere is serious but calm.

“We are not exactly supporters of the AfD, but there are no other parties that would defend us,” the Berliner Saskia Zerbin says.

He works in the social sector, as does his spouse Marina Bark. They state that dissatisfaction with the government in the social and health sector is strong after the corona times.

The gas bill also worries the couple living in a rented apartment. Both heat, hot water and Ruuanlaitto rely on gas.

“At the beginning of the year, the price doubled and in October we had to pay six times the bill compared to before,” says Bark.

According to him, the only good side of the situation is that the gas supply has been promised to continue, even if the bills cannot be paid. But the debts that accumulate during the winter are worrying.

“I don’t know how we’ll ever get them paid,” he says.

Bark is Ukrainian by birth and has lived in Germany since he was a child. In the summer, he brought his grandmother from Kiev to Berlin for hospital treatment, but the grandmother will soon have to be taken back to Kiev, because she does not have the right to treatment in Germany.

“Complete system failure,” says Bark.

Fair a year ago, in the federal election, AfD’s support was 10.3 percent. Now, according to polls, 15–16 percent of Germans support the party.

The energy crisis is a real threat to many Germans in surviving everyday life. Thus, the party now manages to talk to more people than before.

The German government has also provided a lot of material for criticism. For months, the government has been trying to agree on a model to support citizens with gas bills, without success.

Last week the Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the government was planning 200 billion euro fund, which covers, among other things, the price ceiling for electricity and gas. In addition the government has decided of various social benefits and reliefs worth a total of 95 billion euros.

Scholz reiterates that no one is left alone and no one needs to worry. Faith in these assurances is weakening day by day, even among people other than right-wing populists. Especially because so far there are only political disagreements about the implementation of the 200 billion euro subsidies.

It has proven to be extremely difficult to create a model that is at the same time fair, correctly targeted and quickly implementable.

The government helplessness makes many experts critical, but the actual cause of the energy crisis and Germany’s relationship to the war of aggression started by Russia is peculiar to the AfD.

The demonstrators also have Russian flags and the signs call for the start of peace negotiations.

“At our house has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine,” AfD chairman With Tino Chrupa picket.

There are almost a million refugees from Ukraine in Germany, and despite Chrupalla’s direct words, support for Ukraine is generally supported and visible.

Published on Friday opinion poll According to 31 percent of Germans, sanctions against Russia are considered appropriate, 36 percent too mild, and 24 percent too far-reaching. The latter group has grown, as has the AfD’s support.

“Gas will become cheap when we get it from Russia again,” Chrupalla shouts and makes the demonstrators cheer.

from Cottbus Came to Berlin Andreas Bock is a longer-term supporter of the AfD. He believes that the government wants to deliberately impoverish the German people. Why? That should be asked of those in power, he says.

According to him, the “green ideology” is directed against ordinary people.

According to him, Germany is threatened by industry fleeing the country, because energy is now too expensive for companies. The AfD is not alone in this concern, but industry representatives have also spoken about the threat recently.

Bock is an entrepreneur who also has cooperation networks in Sweden. He hopes that other parties will someday stop isolating the AfD from cooperation, as seems to be happening with the Sweden Democrats in Sweden.

“I hope that one day that will happen in Germany as well, but first the AfD should get a lot stronger.”

Because of AfD members’ neo-Nazi connections, Germany’s other parliamentary parties refuse to cooperate with it.

In July German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock predicted that if Russia’s gas supply to Germany stopped, unrest would result.

At the beginning of September, Russia shut off the gas tap in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, and as the gas crisis progresses, the atmosphere in Germany has continued to tighten.

Even during the corona period, the revived Monday demonstrations are gathering participants in different parts of Germany.

The AfD demonstration in Berlin was not restless at least in the afternoon. However, the confrontation thumped in the air from beginning to end to a techno tempo, as at least ten counter-demonstrations were directed against the AfD.

Correction 8.10. at 20:18, Contrary to what was said in the story earlier, Alice Weidel did not speak at the demonstration.