EXTREMISMFar-Right Populism: Why Is It So Popular in Germany?

By Ben Knight

German politicians and media are once again fretting about the rise of far-right populism in the country, after two local runoff votes in eastern Germany were won by the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country’s most successful far-right party since World War II.

On Sunday evening, the AfD’s Hannes Loth beat independent candidate Nils Naumann in the small town of Raguhn-Jessnitz, Saxony-Anhalt, to become the AfD’s first ever mayor in Germany. This came a week after the AfD’s Robert Sesselmann won a similar runoff in the district of   Sonneberg, Thuringia.

Though the two districts are relatively small, the results are considered significant because they confirm a trend in national polls: The far-right party can now claim the approval of 20% of German voters, the same as Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats.

But few political analysts can agree on why. Some have argued that recent infighting in the government, particularly over climate protection laws, has not been helpful. “The politics of the coalition government are unsettling people,” said Ursula Münch, director of the Tutzing Academy for Political Education in Bavaria. “And I think people who were also dissatisfied by politics in general are now getting mobilized more and more by the AfD.”

A study released this week by Leipzig University suggests a simpler, though more disturbing, explanation: Many German voters, particularly in the east of the country,  hold racist views.

Equally alarming were the results of another survey, released on June 29, which found that the AfD’s populist sentiment is gaining more support among middle-class Germans. The ongoing study, by the Sinus Institute for Social Research, found that the middle-class segment of the AfD’s voters has grown from 43% two years ago to 56% now.

Not only that, there are signs that the AfD’s voter base is broadening. The survey found that AfD voters in this segment are not just what Sinus calls the “conservative and nostalgic” middle classes, but also the “adaptive-pragmatic” middle classes — in other words, people who switch their political allegiances according to current issues.

“What we’re currently seeing is the younger, more modern middle-classes, who are actually more well-educated, are also showing an affinity to the AfD,” Silke Borgstedt, director of the Sinus Institute, told DW. “Though we can’t say yet whether that’s because the other parties don’t put together the appropriate program, or whether it’s a conscious decision.”