German election results: a move further to the right

By Omnia Magdy

German politics move further to the right after federal Elections were held in Germany on the 23rd of February.

After the previous coalition government of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens (Grüne), and Liberal (FDP) collapsed last year, the election campaign leading up to the 23rd of February was dominated by racist demands for more deportations and more restrictions on immigration. In the previous months, the racist fearmongering against Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians that practically all parties in parliament participated in allowed for the talking points of the AfD to become normalized. This allowed the fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD) to come in as the second strongest party with 20.8% percent (up from 10.4% in 2021).

The right-conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) received 28.5% (up from 24.1% in 2021), while the Social Democrats (SPD) received a heavy blow with 16.4% (down from 25.7% in 2021), as did the Greens (Grüne) with 11.6% (down from 14.7% in 2021). The zionist Left Party (Die Linke) received 8.7% (up from 4.7% in 2021), while two parties did not make it into the German parliament due to the 5% hurdle necessary to get into parliament: the economically liberal (FDP) received 4.3% (down from 11.4% in 2021) while the Coalition Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), which had split from Die Linke and had scandalously voted together with the AfD and CDU for more restrictions on migration received 4.97% of the votes but has said it will go to court to contest the election results.

The voter turnout was at an all-time high of 82.5% (the last time it was higher was in 1987 at 84.3%). Now it will be up to the CDU to form a coalition, most likely with the SPD. Friedrich Merz, the head of the CDU will with all likelihood be the next chancellor. He has made it abundantly clear where he stands internationally: while whipping up fear of “criminal migrants” in Germany, he has publicly stated that one of the first things he wants to do as chancellor is to violate international law by ignoring the arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Netanyahu and inviting him to Berlin.

A POLARIZED YOUTH: CAPITALISM IS TO BLAME

In Eastern Germany, the AfD results are even more extreme. In the state of Saxony, the AfD received 37.3%, in Thuringia 38.6%, in Saxony Anhalt 37.1%, in Brandenburg 32.5%, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 35%.

Yet simultaneously, if one looks at the statistics of how young people voted, there is a clear polarization. Among young voters, Die Linke received the highest percentage (25%), followed by the AfD with 21%, while the other parties received far below this percentage. Different coalitions of Social Democrats, Christian Conservatives, Greens, and Liberals have been ruling the country for decades. Still, materially, the living standards have decreased for the German working class, while even more so for those in the former GDR (German Democratic Republic) in the East. In times of capitalist crisis, people look for solutions beyond the status quo, with the AfD offering ultra-nationalistic answers that do not serve working-class people in the slightest, but create useful scapegoats (migrants, Muslims, Arabs) that feign solutions.

The fact that the reformist Die Linke was able to receive 8.7% of the votes must also be seen in this context. Die Linke was hovering at around 3% last year, and its defanged positions towards the war in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza had made it also indistinguishable from the SPD and Greens. In every state government that Die Linke had been part of, it had participated in the administration of capitalism: participating in social cuts, austerity measures, and deportations. The contradictions of Die Linke are exemplified in the EU Parliament, where in September 2024, all three of their parliamentarians voted differently on the question of more weapons deliveries to Ukraine: one voted for, one against, and one abstained. Die Linke had lost all credibility in being a party against militarization.

Yet many young people turned to Die Linke in the last months, not necessarily for what it represents but for what it does not represent. The racist fearmongering of virtually all parties of the political establishment made Die Linke the only alternative that did not participate in the demand for the criminalization of migration or more deportations. Through the almost indistinguishable rhetoric of CDU, Greens, SPD, FDP, and BSW with the AfD, hence Die Linke was seen by many as the only viable alternative to the onslaught of the Right. After the CDU tried to get a majority for an anti-immigration law together with the AfD in parliament in January, hundreds of thousands of protestors took to the streets. For many in the anti-AfD movement, Die Linke was seen as the only voice in parliament who stood their ground against the fascist party.

Even within pro-Palestine migrant and activist communities, many people voted for Die Linke out of tactical reasons: knowing that they want a voice in parliament that counters the racism of the AfD, even if it is pro-Israel. Others opted for smaller pro-Palestine parties like Mera25, yet many people who had themselves been attacked for their pro-Palestine stance by Die Linke members decided to vote for Die Linke.

THE SUCCESS OF THE AFD MUST BE SEEN IN THE CONTEXT OF RACIST FEARMONGERING

Austerity measures by the ruling German government have led to worse living conditions for the German working class. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, admitted this, saying publicly that the government reduced spending on public infrastructure, like schools or public transportation, in order to ramp up military spending. In order to deflect from the fact that increased military spending or crumbling public infrastructure is not in the interest of the German working class, the German ruling class has once again whipped up the narrative that migrants are to blame for all societal ills. The maneuver of using racist talking points that scapegoat migrants to distract from horrific capitalist economic policies has effectively strengthened the AfD, which itself wants massive tax breaks for the rich.

In the last months, the racist fearmongering of the political establishment in parliament participated in allowed for the arguments of the AfD to spread their reach. This racist climate has allowed the AfD to spread its ideas further into the “middle” of society.

GAZA GENOCIDE AND THE MOVE TO THE RIGHT OF THE GERMAN POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT

But also, the German political establishment’s unanimous agreement to stand with Israeli settler colonialism and criminalize the pro-Palestine movement in Germany has served the AfD. In October 2023, shortly after the 7th of October, all parties in the German parliament, including the pro-Zionist Left Party (die Linke), CDU, SPD, FDP, Greens, and the fascist AfD unanimously voted together (for the first time in history) on a motion that granted full solidarity and support to Israel. It also argued that residency permits of migrants should be revoked if they support the Palestinian resistance.

Since then, virtually every party has supported authoritarian measures against the pro-Palestine movement. In over 15 months of genocide in Gaza, the ruling parties in Germany still stand unconditionally behind the Zionist state – militarily, politically, and ideologically.

In a speech on the 10th of October, 2024, in front of the German parliament, foreign minister Annalena Baerbock of the Greens stated: “Self-defense means, of course, not only that one attacks terrorists but that one destroys them. That is why I have made it so clear when Hamas terrorists hide behind people, behind schools, then we get into very difficult issues, but we won’t shy away. That’s why I made it clear to the UN that civilian places can also lose their protected status because terrorists abuse it. That is what Germany stands for, and that is what Israel’s security means for us.”

The speech coincided with yet another massacre in Gaza, where civilians in the Al Aqsa hospital were burned alive. Dreadful videos show patients lying in beds in the tents of the hospital, unable to move, some still connected to their IV drips, as the flames of the fire caused by Israeli bombardments on the hospital engulf them. Baerbock legitimizes the burning alive of Palestinians by certifying her support for Israeli attacks on civilian areas as well as Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza in general.

A few days before Annalena Baerbock’s speech, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats declared in Parliament that Germany has delivered weapons to Israel and will continue to do so. Germany is the second largest weapons exporter to Israel after the USA, providing about 30% of Israel’s arms.

To uphold their Imperialist interests through the unconditional support of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the German ruling class, at the same time, sees the necessity to crush the pro-Palestine movement within Germany. Polls show that 70% of Germans do not support Israel’s actions in Gaza. To keep this 70% from rising against military spending or weapons deliveries, the German ruling class has, both politically as well as in bourgeois media propaganda, violently attacked the pro-Palestine movement. Through criminalization and repressions, the vast majority of Germans are told that those calling for a free Palestine or even an end to genocide are “Islamists,” “antisemites,” and “terrorists.” As the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class, we should not be surprised that after one year of genocide, the bourgeois propaganda machinery is spewing the same narratives as it has done for over a year, if not decades, because upholding the Zionist entity is in the very interests of German imperialism.

The political establishment’s agreement that Palestine solidarity constitutes terrorist propaganda has played into the hands of the AfD. In November 2024, a resolution on “protecting Jewish life” that was brought in by the SPD, Greens, FDP, and CDU was passed in parliament together with the vote of the AfD and argued that “imported Muslim antisemitism” is a threat to Germany. It further argued that “Muslim Antisemites” should be deported. The AfD’s Beatrix von Storch (granddaughter of Hitler’s minister of finance) thanked the Greens in her speech in parliament thereafter, saying that the Greens have finally taken up AfD positions on imported antisemitism by Muslim immigrants. The AfD is a staunch supporter of Israel and has, time after time, declared its support for the genocide against Gaza.

The German establishment uses Muslims, immigrants, and refugees (especially those active in the Palestine solidarity movement) as a useful scapegoat to divert attention from real problems, i.e., rising inflation, rising costs of living, or poor infrastructure – problems that the German ruling class is responsible for. Hence, the narrative goes: Not 100 billion Euros for military spending or a ten percent increase in arms exports to Israel are a problem, but immigrants and Muslims. This fearmongering has played into the hands of the AfD.

WE NEED A UNITED FRONT

Reformists like the Greens and Social Democrats have argued that one can beat the fascists through parliamentary elections. They are mistaken. Calls to ban the AfD are also mistaken as the bourgeois state can never be a reliable partner in the fight against fascism. Banning fascists will not root out the capitalist basis on which fascism grows.

The fascists must be smashed in the streets. We need a sustained mass movement supported by the unions and a broad coalition of organizations that works within a united front to fight against the fascist AfD and their allies. Individual protests can only be a starting point. The Nazis need to encounter masses that oppose them everywhere they go. We saw this in June 2024 when thousands of antifascists flooded the city of Essen to demonstrate against the party assembly of the AfD.

Just recently, on the 11th of January 2025, thousands of antifascists traveled to the tiny city of Riesa to demonstrate against and block the AfD party assembly. The protestors were able to delay the party assembly by two hours. However, in the end, the AfD was able to hold its party assembly, and the fascist Alice Weidel, who accused the protestors of being “red-painted Nazis,” was elected as chancellor candidate. The police violence that was used against the protestors in Riesa had been tested for 14 months on pro-Palestine demonstrations, specifically in Berlin. Mainstream journalists who were in Riesa showed shock at the level of police violence, to which activists from the pro-Palestine movement answered that Riesa was only a tiny piece of the broken ribs, hospitalizations, and overall violence that they had faced on a weekly basis for merely calling for the decolonization of Palestine.

AFD AND ZIONISM: COMBINING THE MOVEMENT AGAINST THEM

The AfD is a pro-zionist party. A few days prior to the party assembly in Riesa, Alice Weidel, in an interview with Elon Musk, said that a Palestinian-leftist conspiracy is following in the antisemitic legacy of Adolf Hitler, who she claims was actually a communist. This vile historical revisionism is startling but not surprising if one looks at the way that fascists from the AfD have been claiming for years that Muslim and Arab immigrants are to blame for anti-Semitism in Germany. The AfD has staunchly supported Israel’s genocidal war, while purporting that the Nazi dictatorship was a mere “birdshit” of history.

The protests in Essen and Riesa were essential steps in the mass mobilization against the AfD. However, there must be an impetus for renewed organizing efforts on a national scale. We antifascists must organize under a united front and block the fascists everywhere where they show up. Focusing on AfD party assemblies is not enough.
We need a sustained mass movement supported by the unions and a broad coalition of organizations that works within a united front to fight against the fascist AfD and their allies. Individual protests can only be a starting point. The Nazis need to encounter masses that oppose them everywhere they go.

Simultaneously, we have seen that the reformists and the pro-Zionist Die Linke party are unable and unwilling to combine the anti-fascist struggle and pro-Palestine work. The fight against fascism must be connected to the struggle against the genocide in Gaza. Revolutionary Socialists must work to reach that 70% of Germans who do not support Israel’s actions in Gaza and whom bourgeois propaganda is fighting to keep docile and scared of joining the pro-Palestine movement. Fascists from the AfD are some of the most adamant supporters of the fascists within the Israeli state and the Zionist project as such and are at the forefront of accusing Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians of spreading “imported antisemitism,” “Islamism” and “terror.”

In united fronts against fascism, we must show that the capitalist system feeds off of exploitation and oppression. Genocide in Palestine is a lucrative business for the German capital. We see that when capitalism is in crisis, the fascists rise, and the danger of a fascist takeover is very real. Times of intensifying crises benefit fascist movements the most.

Within such united fronts, Revolutionary Socialists must show why we need a revolutionary alternative and win over people into one’s own rank and file. Hence, it is our duty as an organization to organize an anti-fascist resistance for Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims, who are currently the main target of right-wing hate. These two movements should and must not be separated but belong organically together.