Merkel destroyed the Christian Democrats by decreeing the destruction of nuclear power plants in the panic after Fukujima, and then by welcoming in hundreds of thousands of unassimilable Muslim refugees from Syria. The first decision has resulted in huge energy costs. The second has resulted in the rise of terrorism, crime and rape and a large population hostile to liberal values…congratulations Angela. This is your work.
No Art. Allow me to politely disagree. The decision to turn away from nuclear power towards safe, renewable energy was bold and sensible. The decision to welcome migrants from Syria was a Christian act of mercy which proved the greatness of Germany to the people of the Middle East and the global South, and wiped away the stains of Nazi Germany. Yes some Syrians are unassimilable. So are some Germans or any other nationality who behave abominably towards their fellow humans. Yascha is right that corrupt, mainstream elites are responsible for the rise of the populist right. The latter have and will come to power in many countries. Let us who still have principles and values continue to proclaim and live by them. And let’s all engage in calm debate with those with whom we disagree. Something good must come out of all this.
Dear Nick, I could be wrong, but my understanding was that nuclear power was both sa fe and cheap. Electrically generated power is the source of modern mass societies. Electrical power in Germany is now as I understand it extraordinarily expensive. this has consequences for ordinary people downstream in society. As for the immigrants. you have only to look on the attacks on gays, and women in Cologne, to see the problem. It’s religious. look at Sweden, where the incidents of rape is hugely up since mass Middle East immigration. It’s not coming from ethnic Swedes.
All in all the quality of life for ordinary people has declined since these two decisions of Merkel. I understand that other people have different opinions, yes.
Dear Art, many thanks for your reply. I would argue that nuclear is neither safe nor cheap, if you take into account the full nuclear cycle, from the mining of uranium, to the final disposal of highly radioactive nuclear waste. Occasionally, extraordinary accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima have devastating consequences, and the potential to make large swathes of land uninhabitable. While the closure of Germany’s last 3 nuclear plants in 2023 did push up prices by 7% over a short period, the biggest factor in price increases was the (moral, and I think, praiseworthy) decision to turn away from Russian gas. Wind and solar expansion are pushing electricity prices down. In their current bills, Germans are also paying extra for the development of the electricity grid - a necessary long term investment which costs the incumbent government votes.
The immigration argument is long, but the contribution of immigrants to societies which welcome them is unmistakable. At the end of the day, most people feel happiest where they came from. I know Syrians who have worked hard in Germany for 11 years, became German citizens, and now feel afraid there. Some hope to return to rebuild Syria, when they believe the new regime in Damascus can restore basic services and stability.
Nick, I just don’t have that optimistic view. And I wonder whether the continual elite ldetermined assertion of optimism in the face of higher expenses, and horrific terrorist attacks from immigrants, hasn’t in fact, helped create the alienation that leads to the rise AfD.
When you say that the contribution of migrants is “unmistakable”, can you spell out what you think Europe gains from poorer-country migration? Yes, migration from rich countries tends to be an economic plus, but all the evidence is that migrants from poorer countries are a huge net cost to the taxpayer, and so are their 2nd-generation children. There are also huge costs to social cohesion, that will be causing tensions for decades, possibly centuries.
It doesn't appear as if the Muslim migrants who committed the mass sexual assaults in Cologne were overly impressed with Merkel's “Christian act of mercy”.
> Let us who still have principles and values continue to proclaim and live by them.
What you are implying here is that people who do not share your delusions don't have principles. This is the solipsistic arrogance that pervades the Left and is preventing it from examining itself -- we are already perfect so if the people are turning away from us, it must be because the people are becoming Nazis, yes?
You are a fine specimen of a progressive who retains some civility, and congratulations for that, and who is otherwise intelligent, but who is so deeply deluded that prying those delusions out of you will probably be impossible. But:
Germany's energy policy has been a disaster. Whereas some migration to renewables is commendable, shutting down the nukes prematurely was stupid. The bottom line is that it has crippled German industry and sent billions of dollars to Putin.
Muslim immigration has been an outright disaster. As a whole, these people have been a huge net drain on every country that has been stupid enough to admit them. Some assimilate but most don't and the social tensions that have arisen are the primary cause of the rise of the right -- whether the people of Germany 'should' look forward to becoming an Islamic republic or not, the fact on the ground is that they are not looking forward to it, and only the 'far right' will put a stop to it.
Dear Ray, ‘those who still have principles and values’ was meant as an inclusive, not an exclusive term. It includes you, and those on the ‘far right’ or ‘far left’ who can look themselves in the mirror. If you and I have different principles and values, that’s fine - the solid ground from which we can have a civilised discussion. But I don’t understand your anger, or your aggression. Accusing me of living under a delusion is not useful in a discussion. You’re just waving a gun in the air. Or rather, shooting from the hip.
I'll take you at your word as to inclusive vs. exclusive -- I admit to making assumptions as to your self-righteousness and I apologize. And I didn't mean to be aggressive, merely challenging. Perhaps 'delusion' is too strong a word. But I don't think I waved a gun in the air, I made specific claims as to where I think you are mistaken. And I continue to admire your civility.
Nuclear power has been used in France for decades, without any harm.
Citizens should be able to make choices about nuclear power and immigration, that's how democracy works. So long as political parties, often pushed around by narrow sections of public opinion, keep trying to govern against the consent of the voters, the result will be protest votes.
It's been more than a decade since the start of the far right wave, and still many people on the left and centre left refuse to see this.
I'm myself centre left, but there are humane and popular ways of dealing with energy, immigration, industrial policy, ways that do not involve economic and social insecurity for the citizens.
But issues like opposition to nuclear energy, to stricter immigration rules, to lower taxes, etc. are articles of faith for many leftists, they just won't listen or compromise.
Did not the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Count Leopold Berchtold utter words to this effect when told of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie at Sarajevo on the 28 June 1914?
Just so. As usual, the "mainstream centrists" are utterly blind to the scale of their insanity, and the extent to which their fanatical commitment to what Matthew Syed in the Times calls "hyperliberalism" leaves the public desperate for any alternative to the lunacy of the centrists.
"History will judge hyperliberals as the vandals who dissolved our borders and ignored Putin’s threat
"If extremism is defined as acting out of proportion with context, history or consent, I suggest Merkel’s tenure represented the high point of postwar European extremism. It was not just that she opened the door in 2015 to almost a million unvetted, largely male asylum seekers, but did so knowing perfectly well what the consequences would be. We know this because she alluded to many at the time of her (again, widely acclaimed) “Wir schaffen das” (“we can do this”) speech. She knew it would impose ruinous fiscal cost on the German people but she went ahead anyway, prioritising the projection of her own virtue above the interests of her voters. She knew it would add huge pressure to schools with tens of thousands of extra pupils needing German-as-second-language teaching in an already short-staffed system, not to mention adding huge tension to a tight housing market. She knew this would shaft her neighbours as migrants moved westwards, making a mockery of Schengen and adding to the drumbeat for Brexit. She must also have surely known there would be a spike in crime; rape and sexual assaults rose by 13 per cent in 2016 and asylum seekers were overrepresented sixfold in the numbers. On New Year’s Eve in 2015 more than 500 sexual offences were recorded in Cologne on a single night."
Chernobyl was old Russian tech. Modern reactors are much safer. No residents were injured by radiation in Fukushima. One worker was exposed and sadly died. But building a nuclear power plant in an earthquake prone zone is very different than one in Germany.
This biased commentary about western politics will not change the minds of people, particularly younger, in the west totally unsatisfied with the lack of progress, both economic and social, that has been stymied by the moderate, corrupt corporate politicians owned by the elite and wealthiest in the nation. Why of course pensioners are satisfied with the status quo - they’re benefitting from this system more than anyone below the capitalist class. The more politicians attempt to shame people for wanting this progress, thinking the word populism has a negative impact in any way, the more their POV will be ignored and discredited. I recently heard Francis Fukuyama talk about what reforms and reimagining he thinks should happen in the United States including policies to tackle wealth inequality and the detachment and resentment people feel toward their government & political system and I believe he’s entirely right about what needs to happen. As long as moderates and centrists try to cling to restoration, the more they will continue to lose. We have seen this play out all across the western countries. And if you don’t give it to them, they’ll get another flamethrower like Trump to blowtorch it all down.
If you don’t want “populists” such as the AfD the remedy is for the “mainstream” parties to take some note of what the electorate wants — and that is an end to mass immigration. The mainstream parties are happy to hand over city after city to third-world migrants, with consequent major damage to the economy and to social cohesion, and then get puzzled and upset that voters desert them.
AfD isn’t ’far-right’ but are where the CDU/CSU was maybe 50 years ago. The establishment parties have nearly destroyed Germany through irresponsible social, economic, foreign, and especially immigration policies. All the traditional parties have lost all legitimacy.
This German government seems to be held together in equal measure by its fear of the electorate, its cluelessness about a viable or even attractive vision for the country and its utter lack of ambition. In earlier times, one could at least trust the Machiavellian instincts of the CDU to kill off a leader that has become a liability rather than just remained a non-entity.
Germany's Brandmauer/cordon sanitaire has failed. This is mainly because of the failure of the centrist parties themselves, especially on migration policy what AfD is concerned. Instead of attacking parties and their politicians, it makes more sense to do something about the concerns of voters. Poll after poll after poll suggests that mainstream parties have failed to do so. In that sense, mainstream parties are the strongest 'allies' of the AfD and die Linke.
The AfD roughly corresponds to the CDU right wing in the 90s and the Linke is now a populist young generation. What drove the change was that Angela Merkel steered the CDU to the hard left and gave up core positions of the Christian Democrats which the party, being loyal in their brand, did not oppose. Suddenly the CDU became the party of suspending military subscription & nuclear abolishment, open-border maximalism, and gay policy makers. Friedrich Merz does now important reforms for which you cannot win a popularity contest but they are necessary nevertheless. He is not charismatic and that is good. It is also fine that voters are less ideological and shift between parties. It is democracy at work and we will all be fine. These are state elections, the chancellor is here mere symbolic.
The sad part is how easy effective opposition would be. Germany, France, and others are following what has happened in USA and Israel. Trump’s greatest advantage was the complete aloofness, fecklessness, and cluelessness of the Democratic opposition, whose main politicians look a lot like Merz and Macron. This is not rocket science. It is a leadership problem. We are starving for great leaders who can turn the tide.
One sees this most clearly in the States. The Dems are incapable of self-reflection. If the people turn away from them it can only be because the people are stupid, evil, naive, and dirty. The Dems have actively hated the working class, particularly the white working class, for decades. They serve the globalist plutocrats who attempt to hide their greed under a veil of performative wokeness. Yes, your real standard of living is dropping, but look at the dozens of genders you now have to choose from! You can't afford rent, OTOH, living on the sidewalk isn't so bad now that you have a smartphone to keep you amused.
Sure they hate the working class. Proof? And your shady master likes the working class, right? Well, just like slave owners liked slaves. All he really likes is grabbing them by the… and money.
'Shady master'?? You mistake me for a Trumpist perhaps? I detest him. But the Dems have failed the working class and the best of them realize that and want to repair the damage.
I remember the scoffing of former German colleagues who were applauding the “Great Coalition” when I asked who people who opposed the government were supposed to vote for. I wonder if they would still pooh-pooh that notion now.
You mean other than being hyper nationalist, anti EU, pro Russia, homophobic, misogynistic, and anti democratic? No, you’re right, it’s completely normal party.
Anti democratic? Homophobic? Misogynistic? Do you have any evidence that this is the case? The other claims I can at least see how you arrived at, but these seem like you made them up. For one thing, it is the other parties who are acting un-democratically to fire-wall the AfD from the government.
Hyper nationalist you say? IOW they want to rediscover the idea that Germans should be at home in Germany. They are anti EU because the EU takes the lead in globalization and open door immigration. Their leader is a lesbian who's 'partner' is a POC. It is their opposition who have twisted every rule of democracy.
"Since 2015, with the beginning of the refugee crisis in Europe, AfD's ideology has been characterised by German nationalism,[34][35][36] völkisch nationalism (ethno-nationalism),[37] right-wing populism,[38] and national conservatism.[39][40][41] It has a policy focus on opposing Islam,[42][43][44] opposing immigration into Germany,[45] especially Muslim immigration into Germany,[46] welfare chauvinism,[37] Euroscepticism,[47][48] denial of human-caused global warming,[49][50] and supporting closer relations with Russia.[51]"
Exactly seems pretty center-right to me. Germany is a historic ethnic nation so a form of ethnic-nationalism seems like it would be a moderate position for a German to hold. Opposing Islam seems reasonable given the number of SUVs plowing into Christmas Markets.
Since policy questions are of the utmost importance, "seems reasonable" is not good enough--we want to actually get the answers right. Unfortunately for your impression of reasonableness, terrorism kills far fewer people than even indoor air pollution. The impact of terrorism on the German people hardly justifies the obsessive concern some have for it, since that money would be better spent on just about anything else. In the U.S., we could save more lives by repaving roads. Second, I can't help but notice that you declined to mention AfD's stupidest policies, namely climate change denial and authoritarian sympathizing. What about those policies "seems reasonable" to you?
> terrorism kills far fewer people than even indoor air pollution
A classic progressive meme. Try to understand that there's something different about, say, falling off a ladder, and being crushed by a vehicle driven into a crowd of people by a 'refugee'. The former is part of the risks we take getting out of bed in the morning. The latter is a display of barbarism by savages admitted into the country by idiots. The response will be different.
And not a moment too soon. The two warring parties now must face off with one another in the interest of helping Germany recover from disastrous governance for the past 25 years. The Social Democrats. won't give in so the AFD will have to align themselves with enough of the political detritus to reestablish a serious economy, polity, and intelligent environmental policies. Bring back the nuclear power grid, access as much of the fossil fuel sources to stabilize prices and rebuild the economy. Ignore the SW party---they have no solutions that might matter.
AfD isn’t ’far-right’ but are where the CDU/CSU was maybe 50 years ago. The establishment parties have nearly destroyed Germany through irresponsible social, economic, foreign, and especially immigration policies. All the traditional parties have lost all legitimacy.
I would want to comment that the move to renewable and away from nuclear and hydrocarbons has increased the basic price for energy and put extreme pressure on industry. Read no chemicals, no steel and no cars. All are link to low cost 24/7 energy. Which is NOT provided by renewables.
Merkel destroyed the Christian Democrats by decreeing the destruction of nuclear power plants in the panic after Fukujima, and then by welcoming in hundreds of thousands of unassimilable Muslim refugees from Syria. The first decision has resulted in huge energy costs. The second has resulted in the rise of terrorism, crime and rape and a large population hostile to liberal values…congratulations Angela. This is your work.
No Art. Allow me to politely disagree. The decision to turn away from nuclear power towards safe, renewable energy was bold and sensible. The decision to welcome migrants from Syria was a Christian act of mercy which proved the greatness of Germany to the people of the Middle East and the global South, and wiped away the stains of Nazi Germany. Yes some Syrians are unassimilable. So are some Germans or any other nationality who behave abominably towards their fellow humans. Yascha is right that corrupt, mainstream elites are responsible for the rise of the populist right. The latter have and will come to power in many countries. Let us who still have principles and values continue to proclaim and live by them. And let’s all engage in calm debate with those with whom we disagree. Something good must come out of all this.
Dear Nick, I could be wrong, but my understanding was that nuclear power was both sa fe and cheap. Electrically generated power is the source of modern mass societies. Electrical power in Germany is now as I understand it extraordinarily expensive. this has consequences for ordinary people downstream in society. As for the immigrants. you have only to look on the attacks on gays, and women in Cologne, to see the problem. It’s religious. look at Sweden, where the incidents of rape is hugely up since mass Middle East immigration. It’s not coming from ethnic Swedes.
All in all the quality of life for ordinary people has declined since these two decisions of Merkel. I understand that other people have different opinions, yes.
. .
Dear Art, many thanks for your reply. I would argue that nuclear is neither safe nor cheap, if you take into account the full nuclear cycle, from the mining of uranium, to the final disposal of highly radioactive nuclear waste. Occasionally, extraordinary accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima have devastating consequences, and the potential to make large swathes of land uninhabitable. While the closure of Germany’s last 3 nuclear plants in 2023 did push up prices by 7% over a short period, the biggest factor in price increases was the (moral, and I think, praiseworthy) decision to turn away from Russian gas. Wind and solar expansion are pushing electricity prices down. In their current bills, Germans are also paying extra for the development of the electricity grid - a necessary long term investment which costs the incumbent government votes.
The immigration argument is long, but the contribution of immigrants to societies which welcome them is unmistakable. At the end of the day, most people feel happiest where they came from. I know Syrians who have worked hard in Germany for 11 years, became German citizens, and now feel afraid there. Some hope to return to rebuild Syria, when they believe the new regime in Damascus can restore basic services and stability.
Nick, I just don’t have that optimistic view. And I wonder whether the continual elite ldetermined assertion of optimism in the face of higher expenses, and horrific terrorist attacks from immigrants, hasn’t in fact, helped create the alienation that leads to the rise AfD.
When you say that the contribution of migrants is “unmistakable”, can you spell out what you think Europe gains from poorer-country migration? Yes, migration from rich countries tends to be an economic plus, but all the evidence is that migrants from poorer countries are a huge net cost to the taxpayer, and so are their 2nd-generation children. There are also huge costs to social cohesion, that will be causing tensions for decades, possibly centuries.
It doesn't appear as if the Muslim migrants who committed the mass sexual assaults in Cologne were overly impressed with Merkel's “Christian act of mercy”.
> Let us who still have principles and values continue to proclaim and live by them.
What you are implying here is that people who do not share your delusions don't have principles. This is the solipsistic arrogance that pervades the Left and is preventing it from examining itself -- we are already perfect so if the people are turning away from us, it must be because the people are becoming Nazis, yes?
You are a fine specimen of a progressive who retains some civility, and congratulations for that, and who is otherwise intelligent, but who is so deeply deluded that prying those delusions out of you will probably be impossible. But:
Germany's energy policy has been a disaster. Whereas some migration to renewables is commendable, shutting down the nukes prematurely was stupid. The bottom line is that it has crippled German industry and sent billions of dollars to Putin.
Muslim immigration has been an outright disaster. As a whole, these people have been a huge net drain on every country that has been stupid enough to admit them. Some assimilate but most don't and the social tensions that have arisen are the primary cause of the rise of the right -- whether the people of Germany 'should' look forward to becoming an Islamic republic or not, the fact on the ground is that they are not looking forward to it, and only the 'far right' will put a stop to it.
Dear Ray, ‘those who still have principles and values’ was meant as an inclusive, not an exclusive term. It includes you, and those on the ‘far right’ or ‘far left’ who can look themselves in the mirror. If you and I have different principles and values, that’s fine - the solid ground from which we can have a civilised discussion. But I don’t understand your anger, or your aggression. Accusing me of living under a delusion is not useful in a discussion. You’re just waving a gun in the air. Or rather, shooting from the hip.
Nick:
I'll take you at your word as to inclusive vs. exclusive -- I admit to making assumptions as to your self-righteousness and I apologize. And I didn't mean to be aggressive, merely challenging. Perhaps 'delusion' is too strong a word. But I don't think I waved a gun in the air, I made specific claims as to where I think you are mistaken. And I continue to admire your civility.
Nuclear power has been used in France for decades, without any harm.
Citizens should be able to make choices about nuclear power and immigration, that's how democracy works. So long as political parties, often pushed around by narrow sections of public opinion, keep trying to govern against the consent of the voters, the result will be protest votes.
It's been more than a decade since the start of the far right wave, and still many people on the left and centre left refuse to see this.
I'm myself centre left, but there are humane and popular ways of dealing with energy, immigration, industrial policy, ways that do not involve economic and social insecurity for the citizens.
But issues like opposition to nuclear energy, to stricter immigration rules, to lower taxes, etc. are articles of faith for many leftists, they just won't listen or compromise.
Quoting from Nick Thorpe’s post:
“Something good must come out of all this.”
Did not the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Count Leopold Berchtold utter words to this effect when told of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie at Sarajevo on the 28 June 1914?
Yes., but it was not just Merkel, but the party as a whole
Just so. As usual, the "mainstream centrists" are utterly blind to the scale of their insanity, and the extent to which their fanatical commitment to what Matthew Syed in the Times calls "hyperliberalism" leaves the public desperate for any alternative to the lunacy of the centrists.
https://www.thetimes.com/article/61cae745-68b4-43df-93e3-304d9f41bd47?shareToken=02f9e1eec4749ff6c764271c113e3b66
"Angela Merkel was the true extremist of our age
"History will judge hyperliberals as the vandals who dissolved our borders and ignored Putin’s threat
"If extremism is defined as acting out of proportion with context, history or consent, I suggest Merkel’s tenure represented the high point of postwar European extremism. It was not just that she opened the door in 2015 to almost a million unvetted, largely male asylum seekers, but did so knowing perfectly well what the consequences would be. We know this because she alluded to many at the time of her (again, widely acclaimed) “Wir schaffen das” (“we can do this”) speech. She knew it would impose ruinous fiscal cost on the German people but she went ahead anyway, prioritising the projection of her own virtue above the interests of her voters. She knew it would add huge pressure to schools with tens of thousands of extra pupils needing German-as-second-language teaching in an already short-staffed system, not to mention adding huge tension to a tight housing market. She knew this would shaft her neighbours as migrants moved westwards, making a mockery of Schengen and adding to the drumbeat for Brexit. She must also have surely known there would be a spike in crime; rape and sexual assaults rose by 13 per cent in 2016 and asylum seekers were overrepresented sixfold in the numbers. On New Year’s Eve in 2015 more than 500 sexual offences were recorded in Cologne on a single night."
Chernobyl was old Russian tech. Modern reactors are much safer. No residents were injured by radiation in Fukushima. One worker was exposed and sadly died. But building a nuclear power plant in an earthquake prone zone is very different than one in Germany.
Ok. Believe what you want.
This biased commentary about western politics will not change the minds of people, particularly younger, in the west totally unsatisfied with the lack of progress, both economic and social, that has been stymied by the moderate, corrupt corporate politicians owned by the elite and wealthiest in the nation. Why of course pensioners are satisfied with the status quo - they’re benefitting from this system more than anyone below the capitalist class. The more politicians attempt to shame people for wanting this progress, thinking the word populism has a negative impact in any way, the more their POV will be ignored and discredited. I recently heard Francis Fukuyama talk about what reforms and reimagining he thinks should happen in the United States including policies to tackle wealth inequality and the detachment and resentment people feel toward their government & political system and I believe he’s entirely right about what needs to happen. As long as moderates and centrists try to cling to restoration, the more they will continue to lose. We have seen this play out all across the western countries. And if you don’t give it to them, they’ll get another flamethrower like Trump to blowtorch it all down.
If you don’t want “populists” such as the AfD the remedy is for the “mainstream” parties to take some note of what the electorate wants — and that is an end to mass immigration. The mainstream parties are happy to hand over city after city to third-world migrants, with consequent major damage to the economy and to social cohesion, and then get puzzled and upset that voters desert them.
AfD isn’t ’far-right’ but are where the CDU/CSU was maybe 50 years ago. The establishment parties have nearly destroyed Germany through irresponsible social, economic, foreign, and especially immigration policies. All the traditional parties have lost all legitimacy.
This German government seems to be held together in equal measure by its fear of the electorate, its cluelessness about a viable or even attractive vision for the country and its utter lack of ambition. In earlier times, one could at least trust the Machiavellian instincts of the CDU to kill off a leader that has become a liability rather than just remained a non-entity.
Germany's Brandmauer/cordon sanitaire has failed. This is mainly because of the failure of the centrist parties themselves, especially on migration policy what AfD is concerned. Instead of attacking parties and their politicians, it makes more sense to do something about the concerns of voters. Poll after poll after poll suggests that mainstream parties have failed to do so. In that sense, mainstream parties are the strongest 'allies' of the AfD and die Linke.
This guy parrots anti-Russian and Atlanticist narratives. Typical neoliberal.
The AfD roughly corresponds to the CDU right wing in the 90s and the Linke is now a populist young generation. What drove the change was that Angela Merkel steered the CDU to the hard left and gave up core positions of the Christian Democrats which the party, being loyal in their brand, did not oppose. Suddenly the CDU became the party of suspending military subscription & nuclear abolishment, open-border maximalism, and gay policy makers. Friedrich Merz does now important reforms for which you cannot win a popularity contest but they are necessary nevertheless. He is not charismatic and that is good. It is also fine that voters are less ideological and shift between parties. It is democracy at work and we will all be fine. These are state elections, the chancellor is here mere symbolic.
The sad part is how easy effective opposition would be. Germany, France, and others are following what has happened in USA and Israel. Trump’s greatest advantage was the complete aloofness, fecklessness, and cluelessness of the Democratic opposition, whose main politicians look a lot like Merz and Macron. This is not rocket science. It is a leadership problem. We are starving for great leaders who can turn the tide.
One sees this most clearly in the States. The Dems are incapable of self-reflection. If the people turn away from them it can only be because the people are stupid, evil, naive, and dirty. The Dems have actively hated the working class, particularly the white working class, for decades. They serve the globalist plutocrats who attempt to hide their greed under a veil of performative wokeness. Yes, your real standard of living is dropping, but look at the dozens of genders you now have to choose from! You can't afford rent, OTOH, living on the sidewalk isn't so bad now that you have a smartphone to keep you amused.
Sure they hate the working class. Proof? And your shady master likes the working class, right? Well, just like slave owners liked slaves. All he really likes is grabbing them by the… and money.
'Shady master'?? You mistake me for a Trumpist perhaps? I detest him. But the Dems have failed the working class and the best of them realize that and want to repair the damage.
I remember the scoffing of former German colleagues who were applauding the “Great Coalition” when I asked who people who opposed the government were supposed to vote for. I wonder if they would still pooh-pooh that notion now.
What makes the AfD “far-right”? They seem moderate on every issue except for immigration, where they have a cautious center-right view.
You mean other than being hyper nationalist, anti EU, pro Russia, homophobic, misogynistic, and anti democratic? No, you’re right, it’s completely normal party.
Anti democratic? Homophobic? Misogynistic? Do you have any evidence that this is the case? The other claims I can at least see how you arrived at, but these seem like you made them up. For one thing, it is the other parties who are acting un-democratically to fire-wall the AfD from the government.
Hyper nationalist you say? IOW they want to rediscover the idea that Germans should be at home in Germany. They are anti EU because the EU takes the lead in globalization and open door immigration. Their leader is a lesbian who's 'partner' is a POC. It is their opposition who have twisted every rule of democracy.
"Since 2015, with the beginning of the refugee crisis in Europe, AfD's ideology has been characterised by German nationalism,[34][35][36] völkisch nationalism (ethno-nationalism),[37] right-wing populism,[38] and national conservatism.[39][40][41] It has a policy focus on opposing Islam,[42][43][44] opposing immigration into Germany,[45] especially Muslim immigration into Germany,[46] welfare chauvinism,[37] Euroscepticism,[47][48] denial of human-caused global warming,[49][50] and supporting closer relations with Russia.[51]"
Exactly seems pretty center-right to me. Germany is a historic ethnic nation so a form of ethnic-nationalism seems like it would be a moderate position for a German to hold. Opposing Islam seems reasonable given the number of SUVs plowing into Christmas Markets.
Since policy questions are of the utmost importance, "seems reasonable" is not good enough--we want to actually get the answers right. Unfortunately for your impression of reasonableness, terrorism kills far fewer people than even indoor air pollution. The impact of terrorism on the German people hardly justifies the obsessive concern some have for it, since that money would be better spent on just about anything else. In the U.S., we could save more lives by repaving roads. Second, I can't help but notice that you declined to mention AfD's stupidest policies, namely climate change denial and authoritarian sympathizing. What about those policies "seems reasonable" to you?
> terrorism kills far fewer people than even indoor air pollution
A classic progressive meme. Try to understand that there's something different about, say, falling off a ladder, and being crushed by a vehicle driven into a crowd of people by a 'refugee'. The former is part of the risks we take getting out of bed in the morning. The latter is a display of barbarism by savages admitted into the country by idiots. The response will be different.
I think you fail to see how those principles, or their application in the real world, have actually led us to this point.
Populism is about respect, and revenge: something has been done unto others, and this is their reaction
And not a moment too soon. The two warring parties now must face off with one another in the interest of helping Germany recover from disastrous governance for the past 25 years. The Social Democrats. won't give in so the AFD will have to align themselves with enough of the political detritus to reestablish a serious economy, polity, and intelligent environmental policies. Bring back the nuclear power grid, access as much of the fossil fuel sources to stabilize prices and rebuild the economy. Ignore the SW party---they have no solutions that might matter.
AfD isn’t ’far-right’ but are where the CDU/CSU was maybe 50 years ago. The establishment parties have nearly destroyed Germany through irresponsible social, economic, foreign, and especially immigration policies. All the traditional parties have lost all legitimacy.
I don’t think it’s fair to blame Angela for an alleged increase of terrorism. Matter of fact: this is as stupid and immoral as you can get.
There is no excuse for terrorism. It is simply as stupid and immoral as you can get, too.
I would want to comment that the move to renewable and away from nuclear and hydrocarbons has increased the basic price for energy and put extreme pressure on industry. Read no chemicals, no steel and no cars. All are link to low cost 24/7 energy. Which is NOT provided by renewables.