The Bavarian state elections took place on Sunday (14.10.2018) and the two traditionally dominant parties, the SPD and the CSU, suffered historic losses (yet again in another German election)
The CSU, which has ruled Bavaria for the past half century, did not manage the 50% threshold and must now form a coalition to rule. It is the worst showing ever and the last time it did so badly was in 1954. SPD did even worse with by far the worst showing ever in its history in Bavaria.
The big story in the elections was the rise of the AfD, whose main issue was immigration, and not more of it. The CSU tried to coopt the issue, hoping to win back the voters who were defecting . I think the argument went that these voters would be easy to win back since the stink of voting for the AfD was terrible and all it would take would be to tackle the immigration question in a less rascist way. Unfortunately, the CSU were clueless about dealing with the immigration question without being rascist. It not only failed to attract back conservative voters, who knew their concerns would be shelved by the CSU once they were back in power, it also caused a hemmorage of voters from their left wing who saw the CSU resorting to same rascist tactics as the AfD.
This resulted in a historically good showing for the Greens and historically good showing for the AfD. Though the liberal media has been quick to laud the success of the Greens, it has literally made it dogma to ignore the AfD. Everyone is pretending they do not have a seat at the table. The Greens did not win by embracing the issue of immigration, but rather by sticking to other issues. They avoided any accusation of racism by shelving the issue, which was by far the smart thing to do.
On the one hand, the rise of the AfD for a vast majority of Germans is theoretical. It does not affect them in any way. Their hate is directed at a segment of the population which has little voice, either at the ballot box or in the media. The news media understand the rise of the AfD historically, in the framework of human rights and the German constitution but it does not keep them up at night. It is not something that they feel personally. It does not feel like the content of what the AfD are saying troubles Germany, rather it is the tone that they are taking which grates.
The breakdown of the two center parties and the rise of parites away from the center is to Germans just a matter issues. Land use. Housing. Economy. Etc. For immigrants, especially people of color, the change feels existential, a threat to their/my life, which is beyond the comprehension of the vast majority of this country's population. No one frames it in that way because Germans cannot understand it in that context and would dismiss it. But that is the road this election (and the ones previous) are taking.
The CSU, which has ruled Bavaria for the past half century, did not manage the 50% threshold and must now form a coalition to rule. It is the worst showing ever and the last time it did so badly was in 1954. SPD did even worse with by far the worst showing ever in its history in Bavaria.
The big story in the elections was the rise of the AfD, whose main issue was immigration, and not more of it. The CSU tried to coopt the issue, hoping to win back the voters who were defecting . I think the argument went that these voters would be easy to win back since the stink of voting for the AfD was terrible and all it would take would be to tackle the immigration question in a less rascist way. Unfortunately, the CSU were clueless about dealing with the immigration question without being rascist. It not only failed to attract back conservative voters, who knew their concerns would be shelved by the CSU once they were back in power, it also caused a hemmorage of voters from their left wing who saw the CSU resorting to same rascist tactics as the AfD.
This resulted in a historically good showing for the Greens and historically good showing for the AfD. Though the liberal media has been quick to laud the success of the Greens, it has literally made it dogma to ignore the AfD. Everyone is pretending they do not have a seat at the table. The Greens did not win by embracing the issue of immigration, but rather by sticking to other issues. They avoided any accusation of racism by shelving the issue, which was by far the smart thing to do.
On the one hand, the rise of the AfD for a vast majority of Germans is theoretical. It does not affect them in any way. Their hate is directed at a segment of the population which has little voice, either at the ballot box or in the media. The news media understand the rise of the AfD historically, in the framework of human rights and the German constitution but it does not keep them up at night. It is not something that they feel personally. It does not feel like the content of what the AfD are saying troubles Germany, rather it is the tone that they are taking which grates.
The breakdown of the two center parties and the rise of parites away from the center is to Germans just a matter issues. Land use. Housing. Economy. Etc. For immigrants, especially people of color, the change feels existential, a threat to their/my life, which is beyond the comprehension of the vast majority of this country's population. No one frames it in that way because Germans cannot understand it in that context and would dismiss it. But that is the road this election (and the ones previous) are taking.
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