German election results …
… were pretty much as expected. That indicates that opinion polling still seem to work in Germany:
With vote counting finished, preliminary results show the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz and its sister Christian Social Union (CSU) won the election.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was projected to finish second … [having] nearly doubled its vote share.
The center-left Social Democrats (SPD), led by current Chancellor Olaf Scholz, recorded not only its worst result in a federal election but also its largest loss of votes compared to previous elections.
The neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), whose withdrawal from the coalition triggered the snap election, also suffered heavy losses. The party won’t enter the Bundestag after failing to meet the 5% threshold.
But Friedrich Merz, head of the CDU, has said he will not form a coalition with the AfD. Therefore, although by European and German standards the CDU is a conservative party, any coalition government that is formed will have to be with a party to the left, almost certainly the SPD, which has recorded terrible losses in this election. The gain is on the right, but because it’s the so-called “far right” that grew the most, paradoxically Merz has turned his back on a coalition of the right.
How “far-right” is the AfD? I tried to answer that question in this post of mine from a few days ago. My answer was that, as far as I can tell – and I’m no expert on the subject of Germany’s politics – the party does have some anti-Semitic elements. How large these elements loom I’m not sure, and in Germany the danger of this possibility, as well as the whole idea of a German nationalist party, engenders understandable concern. However, the opposite – in particular, a huge influx of unassimilated Muslims, as well as leftist policies on energy – have harmed both Germany and Europe.
[NOTE: I am almost certainly not the only one in whom the name ‘Friedrich Merz” conjures up fond memories.]
I wouldn’t excuse anti-semitism on the German right, but really, the German left has done a bang-up job of ignoring Muslim immigrant anti-semitism and suppressing people opposed to all the “asylum seekers” and the crime they bring.
Fred Mertz makes so much more sense than what my mind conjured up.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0545298/
Yep, what Kate said. The establishment doesn’t like the ‘extreme’ AfD but will fight to the end for the Muslim extremists they have invited in.
And, according to this, no sooner did Merz win than he began backing away from his election talk of closing the borders.
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/02/24/germanys-brand-news-chancellor-elect-pulled-the-old-magoo-n3800150
Actually hes very much the ally of schwab and blackrock
Alice Weidel’s remark was that the Christian Democrats had copied AfD’s platform, then declared they would only coalesce with leftist parties (who would refuse to consent to its implementation). Bait and switch.
To my mind – and even bearing in mind the insistence for months on Merz’ part that the Union would never have anything to do with the AfD – the fact that the CDU is choosing to grasp at what not so long ago would have been referred to as the “Grand Coalition” option is a sign of desperation rather than of strength. I draw this conclusion due to the fact that the SPD lost about a third of its strength in the parliament this time around, in one fell swoop, which is really quite an achievement.
SPD als Volkspartei? Ganz und gar vorbei! (I exaggerate, perhaps, but not by a great deal, methinks.)
What really saved Merz’ bacon this time around, I think, and the only reason that he has this option available at all, is the fact that the FDP got body-slammed and the BSW seems to be not quite so impressive after all, so there will be only five parties in the parliament rather than six or seven. Had either of those reached 5%, the Union would have had a more difficult series of decisions to make.
I generally concur that this will probably lead to more of the same from Berlin, but I also consider it possible that something amazing could happen while this particular government in Berlin endures.
The DW article to which neo linked in the post is fun to play around with a bit. The graphic showing plurality winners by district is very interesting for one reason in particular: the AfD was getting numbers well into the 40+% range, and actually beating the CSU’s percentages in the core Bavarian districts!
This map of the results of Germany’s election reveals an insightful metric. The blue ADP areas and the black CDU/SPD areas also match the outlines of the former West and East German cold war demarcations.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/ws/640/cpsprodpb/a3f5/live/2c6e46a0-f2bd-11ef-896e-d7e7fb1719a4.png.webp
East Germans have no trouble recognizing an authoritarian regime when they are forced to live under one…