The AfD could become the strongest force in three state elections in the east. Now regional alliances want to counteract this. And an SPD politician has a clear demand.
Erfurt/Dresden/Potsdam – Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg could soon turn blue. In the state elections taking place in the fall, the AfD is heading for three election victories. There is resistance against the party in nationwide protests. One way to fight against the AfD is to show local people what an AfD victory means, say SPD politicians and an extremism researcher.
State elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg: Tackling the AfD at the local level
Most recently, the Potsdam secret meeting caused outrage and widespread protest with its announced expulsion plans. “The revelations have shaken up a lot of people in Germany,” said SPD member of the Bundestag Isabel Cademartori IPPEN.MEDIA. “Across Germany, both small and large cities are breaking demonstration records. This strong reaction from civil society is gratifying and necessary to counter the right-wing narrative that they are the “voice of the people.” In fact, support for the AfD in surveys at the federal level is currently somewhat weakened. In the three countries with elections this year, the party is still firmly in the saddle and is in first place in each of them.
Cademartori also says: “The AfD has a stable core of supporters. This is shown by the extremely close election result of the Thuringian district election amid the wave of protests.”
The centrist parties have been trying to fight the AfD politically for years. So far with moderate success. For Kathrin Michel, chairwoman of the Saxon SPD, the demonstrations against right-wing extremism organized across Germany are the best example of how the AfD can be successfully stopped in the future. She believes that protests in smaller towns in particular are the right approach. “If I meet three people from my company at the demo, I know I can rely on them when it comes to our democracy,” says Michel, who is not concerned with party affiliation. “People need to empower and encourage each other at the local level; in voluntary work, in the gymnastics club or in the company.”
Saxon SPD chairman Homann: “The fight against the right is not decided in Berlin-Mitte”
The politician advocates demystifying the content of the AfD in local circles – and discussing actual solutions. This doesn't have to be part of a political event, because that scares many people away, says Michel. Instead, politicians must also enter into discussions outside of politics. “People then talk about their problems and worries on their own initiative. There’s politics involved in conversations like this, even though it doesn’t say politics at all.”
Michel's co-chair Henning Homann (SPD) also knows the importance of local political commitment. He believes it is dangerous that even local elections are increasingly being exploited as votes on the traffic light coalition. Despite the relevance of the federal level, one must concentrate on the local problems. “It must be clear: the fight against the right is not decided in Berlin-Mitte, but here locally.”
For this you need the right words, especially locally, says the SPD politician and former mayor of Mannheim, Peter Kurz. So you have to know how to refute widespread arguments. Like this: The AfD is a democratically elected party. “This is an intentional or massively ignorant equating of “democratic” and “democratically elected,” says Kurz. “The National Socialists’ cynical amusement that democracy had provided the means to eliminate them still rang in the ears of the mothers and fathers of our Basic Law.”
Right-wing extremism expert: Examples in Thuringia give hope in the fight against the right
For right-wing extremism expert and professor emeritus Hajo Funke, these findings are now more important than ever. Funke also takes “big politics” and that Traffic light coalition with its bad reputation is responsible for people's frustration. According to the expert, the fight against the (extreme) right can now only succeed on a small scale on site. Before the state elections, he considers the local elections, which will take place in many federal states in June, to be crucial: “This is the chance that the Democrats still have to mobilize the civilian population at the level of cities and villages.” The key role in this does not come only to them parties, but rather new alliances of citizens.
Funke therefore advocates mergers: people, local associations and regional companies must unite and make it clear to their colleagues, neighbors and friends what the AfD's policies would mean for the region and its people. This has already worked in Thuringia: “Nordhausen is a good example of this, where a clearly favored AfD candidate was not elected because an alliance was formed locally against him.” Instead, in the runoff election for mayor last year non-party Kai Buchmann prevailed. Funke also names the “Cosmopolitan Thuringia” initiative as a showcase project. There, independent of party and at the local level, citizens join forces with companies and stand up for democracy and diversity.
State elections in the East: What about the often invoked understanding for dissatisfied protest voters?
And what about the often invoked understanding for dissatisfied protest voters? Does there need to be more dialogue? SPD politician Isabel Cademartori thinks: No. “This rhetoric obscures the fact that over the last few years everyone who has a largely closed right-wing extremist world view, and almost everyone else who is clearly to the right of the democratic spectrum, has found themselves as supporters of the AfD.” They are “regular voters” against that become a “system”. “No adjustment in content, no demonstrated “understanding” will bring them back in the short term.” E
Only those who do not want to lose democracy can be reached. Only education – and clear positioning – can help here, says Cademartori. She demands: “It is necessary to have a realistic assessment of how few potential right-wing extremist voters can now be brought back by democratic parties.” Only a clear “attitude and demarcation to the right that does not blur the boundaries between democrats and right-wing extremists “can contain the AfD's expansion beyond the core electorate it has already acquired.
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