The German author Jakob Nolte wrote in one of his novels that things that kill you by either “peng peng” or “bla bla.” Even though in Germany (and other places in Western Europe) the correct version would be “stab stab” instead of “peng peng,” yesterday’s regional elections are indicating that the German people had enough of both. Two former states of East Germany, Saxony and Thuringia, voted overwhelmingly against the parties of the federally ruling “traffic light coalition” — Social Democrats, Greens and liberal Free Democrats — demonstrating that they no longer trust Chancellor Scholz’s and Vice Chancellor Habeck’s “bla bla” on any issue of importance.
The ruling parties and their acolytes in the legacy media tried everything they could to swing the election in their favour. The German weekly Der Spiegel was running cover after cover depicting Germany on the brink of falling to the Nazis or a Fascist takeover. Companies that are considering leaving the country due to the disastrous economic policies of the current government all of a sudden jumped gears, telling people to vote for the very parties that are making Germany once again the economic sick man of Europe. They campaigned that “Made in Germany” also meant “Made by Diversity.” These are the same companies, by the way, which claimed that the refugee wave of 2015 was “as an opportunity to help companies grow and ensure long-term prosperity.”
Yet, as the Financial Times reported, three years after over a million migrants came to Germany, top companies only employed 54 refugees. As Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” In Eastern Germany, we are beginning to see the third stage of that aphorism. Being told that turning off functioning nuclear power plants will make energy cheaper, how more and more migrants from entirely different cultures will make Germany better, and, ultimately, that anyone who disagrees with the Left-Green agenda is a Nazi, simply was too much.
The current federal government in Berlin of the three-party coalition were absolutely clobbered by the voters. In Saxony and Thuringia, the Free Democrats did not even clear the five per cent threshold, meaning they are no longer part of the regional parliament. The Greens and Social Democrats together got just 12.5 per cent in Saxony and in Thuringia, only the Social Democrats got over five per cent with a meagre 6.1 per cent.
Only the supposedly conservative Christian Democrats could make gains or avoid significant loses, coming in first in Saxony with 31.9 per cent of the vote (-0.2 percentage points) and second in Thuringia with 23.6 per cent (+1.9). Yet this is no reason for celebration, because the absolute winners of the night were the anti-establishment newcomers on both the Right and the Left. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now the undisputed leading party in Thuringia with 32.8 per cent (+9.4) and a very close second in Saxony (30.6 per cent, a plus of 3.1 percentage points). The other surprise was the recently formed Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) a left-wing version of the AfD founded by the namesake of the party after she left the former communist party of “Die Linke” (The Left). In her first electoral test, Wagenknecht led her party to almost 12 per cent in Saxony and 16 per cent in Thuringia, making BSW the third largest force in the new legislative assemblies.
Most of the media will frame this as a victory of far-right and far-left populists, but that description is missing the point. The true defining quality of these two parties is that they are anti-establishment, especially on issues like migration and the war in Ukraine, but even more so as representatives of an ever-larger number of ordinary Germans who feel either ignored or despised by the traditional parties. And, to paraphrase Talleyrand, the traditional parties “have learnt nothing, and forgotten nothing.”
Instead of taking the will of the voters seriously, members of the coalition government complain that they have not “communicated clearly enough,” which is their way of saying that the average voter is just too stupid to understand and appreciate the brilliance of people like Olaf Scholz and Robert Habeck. Without their – and Angela Merkel’s – supposed “brilliance” there would not even be an AfD or a BSW. In poll after poll the voters expressed their dissatisfaction with the direction of the country, and a majority of the parties either ignored them or recycled Merkel’s line that their policies – from mass migration to the energy transition – are without an alternative. Instead of taking the voters seriously, they were ignored and, as the great Mark Steyn once wrote, “if the political culture forbids respectable politicians from raising certain issues, voters will turn to unrespectable ones.” In other words, if BSW and AfD are Frankenstein’s monster, the role of Frankenstein is filled by Merkel, Scholz, and Habeck.
You will also hear a lot about how democracy is now under threat, when in truth these elections were a showcase for democracy. Voter participation increased significantly from the mid 60s to over 74 per cent, making the strong performance of the AfD and the BSW all the more significant. These were not the results brought on by an electorate that rejects democracy, but one that decided to participate in its process. The hubris of the Greens, the Social Democrats, an the Merkel “Conservatives” that only votes for them are democratic votes reveals the totalitarian mindset of which they accuse the AfD. What saved the CDU in these elections were civil servants and voters over 60, because in the age groups 18 to 59 the AfD was dominating.
Eastern Germany’s Gen Z is moving towards either the anti-establishment Right or the anti-establishment Left, but they are done with the traditional parties. In doing so, they also ended the myth of the Greens being the party of youth. That ship sailed a long time ago. The future looks bright for anti-establishment movements, and based on the reaction during election night it looks as if the former mainstream parties will only double down on their failed strategies. They will cling to the illusion that the parties that got less than five per cent are the “centre” while those that got over 30 per cent are the “fringe.” Good luck with that.
Zelensky drags America into war, or Zelensky loses