Ahead of 2024’s elections in Saxony, Brandenburg, and Thuringia, where in each state the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is by far the strongest party, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) has warned of a ‘danger to democracy,’ implying that, since the old parties are losing, the democratic process is somehow under threat.
Speaking to AFP, Bas, whose left-liberal SPD party is polling in single digits in Saxony and Thuringia, said: “When I look at the current surveys, I am particularly concerned about the state elections in September 2024 in three eastern German states,” adding that “it could actually be difficult to form stable governments there.”
Ignoring the fact that the democratic will of the people in these states leans heavily in favor of policies of the AfD, Bas went on to claim that the present situation, in which the AfD commands the support of roughly a third of the East German electorate, threatens democracy.
She alleged there is a risk of a “real democracy problem” if the old establishment parties—those which she insists are the only ‘democratic’ parties—are unable to form a majority coalition against the AfD.
“A minority government is already challenging when there are only constructive factions in parliament,” said Bas. “It becomes all the more difficult when there are forces that are always actively working against it—then there is a real threat of democracy.”
“Populists are on the rise in many countries, which worries me—for our democracy as a whole,” she said. “There are also forces that want to completely abolish our democracy. That should be clear to everyone.”
She urged ‘the democratic forces’—which include parties whose top members have called for the AfD, Germany’s second most popular party, to be banned outright—to work together in order to govern.
“The ability to reach compromise across factions is what sets us apart—and I very much hope that it stays that way,” Bas said, adding that if the SPD, CDU, FDP, Greens, and Left “no longer find compromises, the danger of an unstable government increases.”
Although all of Germany’s old parties—the SPD, CDU, Greens, FDP, and the Left—have pledged never to form a government with the AfD, cracks in the ‘firewall’ have become visible in recent months. In September, the CDU, FDP, and AfD, voted together for the first time to pass tax cuts in Thuringia. Weeks later, the CDU in Thuringia defended its draft legislation to ban the use of ‘gender language’ in schools and government administration that, in order to pass, would require the support of the AfD.
In light of the ruling left-liberal coalition’s unwillingness to address Germany’s migration crisis, and with the CDU and FDP hardening their positions on migration to prevent their voters from flocking to the AfD, the Bundestag president’s call for a unified front against the AfD seems likely to fall on deaf ears unless the the SPD, Greens, and Left can bring themselves to take a more conservative stance on migration.
As the migration crisis deepens and the anxieties among the population become more acute, the CDU and FDP will find themselves under ever-increasing pressure to collaborate with the AfD, and risk becoming politically irrelevant if they don’t.
