German Far-Right Profits from Anger Over Reforms

[Kellanved]

DRESDEN, Germany (Reuters) - German far-right parties surged in eastern state elections Sunday, riding public anger against government welfare cuts and fanning fears among mainstream parties that the country's image could suffer.

Elections in Brandenburg and Saxony showed a shift to the political fringes at the expense of big parties in response to cuts in jobless benefits that have brought tens of thousands onto the streets, especially in the depressed ex-Communist east.

The National Democratic Party (NPD), which the government has likened to the Nazis and has tried to ban, emerged as the strongest gainer in an election in Saxony with television projections showing them up around eight points at 9.5 percent.

...
Analysts have played down the far-right gains which have happened before in the east, and have often been short-lived. Sharp voter swings are not unusual because the mainstream parties have no roots in the region which unified with the west in 1990. That has led to sharp electoral swings in the east.
...



http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6273438&pageNumber=0

This is a rather catastrophic result. More so in Saxony, than in Brandenburg, where the right's gains were small and 60% of all voters gave their vote to parties left of the center. The far-right vote was further boosted by the media telling 24/7 how terrible such a result would be; thus furthering the image of such a vote being a sign of protest.


Both states are rather small, the low turnout (about 55%) made things worse. It has to be said that the SPD won 30 of Brandenburg's 44 districts, the other 14 went to the Post-communistic PDS.
Not all Saxony districts have completed counting, but it seems as if the conservative CDU won all 60 districts there.

[dumpster_baby]

1. this is a superficial analysis

as bad as any mass media analysis.

WHY is the far right picking up votes?

WHAT does the far right have to offer that other parties do not?

HOW does this "far right" differ from the American far right? Socially? Financially/economically?

[Kellanved]

2. there is no good explanation

Protests against the established parties really is the stated reason for almost all far right voters.

As to how "far right": we're talking about Neo-Nazis.

[reorg]

4. far right parties in Germany

have always existed, the very DVU and NPD that are now in state parliaments in the East have been active in Germany since the sixties, when the first post-war economic crisis and a grand SPD/CDU coalition left no other way to protest for many conservative, anti-left voters.

These parties "surged" again from sheer insignificance when the East was joined with the West. There is some suspicion that our state secret serivces had a hand in this, but, well, what do I know. Fact is, when the current Federal Government attempted to ban the NPD, they were unable to go through with it because it turned out that most of the dominant figures in this "party" were agents of the Bundesverfassungsschutz.

More significant than any of this are the gains of the left wing PDS, reformed successors of the former ruling SED. The PDS for some time now solidly occupy the second place with up to 30 percent of the vote everywhere in the East. That should give pause, especially to such media who are loath to even mention this such as the above Reuters article.

Hopefully, the newly emerging left party, currently in the process of being formed in the West, will be able to co-operate with the PDS. We are in dire need of a left-wing party in order to counterbalance neoliberal policies currently being carried out by both possible ruling coaltions.

[reorg]

3. not quite true, and not catastrophic

The far right did not "surge" in Brandenburg, only one of the far right parties are represented in parliament, and they were before, this party just gained 0.1 percent more votes than in the former state election 4 years ago.

The major drift in Brandenburg was from the ruling CDU/SPD coalition, both losing 7 percent, more or less proportionally to all the other parties: the left wing PDS gained 5 points and is now the second largest party (28,6 percent, congratulations), the Greens and FDP gained some 2 points each, and various unnamed, probably extreme right wingers of insignificant size gained 5 percent in all, but are still not represented in parliament. In effect, very little will change in Brandenburg.


In Saxony, a formerly "safe" CDU bastion (56,9 percent in last election), the CDU lost big time (15 percent), most of which went to the hardcore Neonazis (10 percent), the other losses are again more or less evenly distributed to all other parties. It is not yet sure if the CDU will enter into a coalition with the SPD or if their preferred partner FDP will have enough seats.

What does it mean that the Nazis have gained 10 percent? Time and again, these and similar stupid idiots have been so lucky to suck up percentage points mostly from the CDU, sometimes from the SPD, too, when these dominant parties were pursuing unacceptable policies, mostly of social cuts. These are protest votes, and time and again such protest votes came back into the mainstream in the next election.

OTOH, we just have to face the fact that there is a stubborn, if small hardcore of aggressive fringe right-wingers in some Eastern states (not only in Saxony and in Brandenburg). We also have had to deal with them throughout the entire post-war period in the West (mostly in Baden-Wuerttemberg, up to 15 percent, and to a lesser extent in all other states). As long as they are ostracised by the other parties, there is little danger that they will have any influence whatsoever.