Guest article: “Germany moves to the right!”

State elections in Germany: right-wing-populist-party AfD enters three parliaments

During the past weeks, Germans have often made fun of the Americans. “How can they vote for someone like Donald Trump?” German people would ask. And they cannot be blamed. The Republicans’ presidential candidate wants to forbid the entry in the United States to Muslims; he wants to bolt the Mexican border with a wall and describes himself as “the best president God has ever created”. Regarding his statements and demands, we are stunned and also about the Americans’ electoral behavior. But with the last state elections in Germany on March 13, the situation in Germany turned out to be as worse as in the United States.

24.2% is the score the right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD, Alternative for Germany) did receive in Saxony-Anhalt at its first election! This result is frightening and dangerous. In Baden-Wurttemberg (15.1%) and Rhineland-Palatinate (12.6%), the situation is hardly better. After this electoral Super-Sunday, the political map of Germany has changed. A party that wants to allow shooting at refugees, to dissolve the EU, to abolish social benefits and to prohibit Muslims from practicing their religion is now represented in eight of the 16 federal state’s parliaments. “The AfD confesses to the traditional family as an example” and rejects state kindergartens. Men should work; women should educate children and stay at home to cook. Every vote for the right-wing populists is a retrograde step.

See the full article here.

by Bettina Schwarz

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