Germany is falling into the same trap others have.
It’s not about policy, it’s about engagement. Flood your constituents’ eyes by any means possible, disinformation or not. That’s the strategy, and if they keep campaigning like it’s 1960, I promise you, AfD is going to win no matter how amazing and united policy seems.
Are there any countries that managed not to fall into the far right trap?
Maybe Denmark, but I think they did that by the left wing putting up immigration restriction as a spear campaign…
Are there any countries that managed not to fall into the far right trap?
Uh… Venezuela, sort of? That’s not a great example.
It’s not really about left-right ideology, its about toxic, shameless populism. I have a feeling we will start seeing “leftist trumps” soon
Leftist Trumps? BSW would be your pick then.
Maybe I should rephrase my question.
Are there any countries that managed to not fall into the far right and/or authoritarian trap? Where the normal centre or left remains dominant?
I don’t know if it’s just engagement. I actually think it’s largely policy.
Both major central parties decommissioned nuclear power, which originated with conservatives but continued under progressives, and that led to increased energy prices.
Neither party is making meaningful progress on the housing crisis and I’m not informed on the history here but it’s pretty clear to me that landlords and investment companies are the problem. No party is suggesting real reform to a human right because there’s too much money involved.
Conservatives continue to gut public services and protections, Merz wants to reduce the social safety net. This will lead to the poorest being poorer and those that suffer minor setbacks to suffer major setbacks - hurting the economy and destroying lives.
Merz wants to cut corporate taxes and is generally Anti-Labor pro-business. That means everyone but the rich get poorer and all of labor suffers reduced rights.
I think we get into this AFD mess because when people spend more on basic needs like electricity and housing, and the rich keep getting tax breaks while labor gets squeezed, and people start seeing that when they need help they get deprioritized you end up radicalizing people.
Conservatives serve the rich, and the SPD didn’t do enough on key issues to show progress (partially cause the FDP purposefully sabotaged the coalition and they should be banned from politics as far as I’m concerned), and this leads to extremism. Germany just voted for minor steady decline instead of major radical decline with the AFD, which is worth celebrating to a degree but the other options could have been minor meaningful progress or major radical progress.
Idk, I’m still a bit raw from the results but that’s how I see things.
Merz is a big reason for that surge. I doubt he learned from it.