Recent voter surveys say between 14% and 22% of under-30s would vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany party in the upcoming European elections. But who are these potential voters?
At an Alternative for Germany (AfD) European election campaign in Berlin, two of the far-right party’s candidates, Dr Alexander Sell and Mary Khan-Holoch, discussed national pride and how the AfD hopes to make Germans proud of being German again.
The crowd was largely made up of pensioners. However, there were also quite a few young people in the mix.
Khan-Holoch herself is 30 years old, and she did not hesitate in her answer to the question of what makes the AfD so attractive to first-time and young voters.
“Germans feel afraid of becoming strangers in their own country,” Khan-Holoch told Euronews.
If they only had a multi-party democracy in Germany, then there would be a progressive party which could attract a huge swath of votes. Instead they are stuck with only a center-right and a far-right party.
Every election the center-right says the progressives must vote for them to keep the far-right out of government, so there is never a chance for the true left to get representation!
If they had multiple parties the will of the people would be heard and a utopian society would soon emerge.
In fact, there is no American-style majority voting system in Germany - as long as the elected party receives more than 5% of the vote in the federal election, it is represented in our parliament! …Nonetheless, Germany is struggling with exactly the same problem of right-wing / neo-fascist populism as basically every nation in the Western world at the moment…
For more reading on Germany’s political power / party dynamics, please have a look here!
Yes, I know this. My comment was a sarcastic broadside at all the people who think progressive causes are widely popular and only suppressed by neoliberals working in cahoots with fascists.
The Dutch system does have fractional representation and multi-party coalition governments, and still the far-right is on the rise.
This is a complex situation, not simply fixed with a magic bullet of voting reform.
Third parties in the US will never be a reality without election reform. That in turn will have to be preceded by high voter turnout to push state legislatures more progressive.
AIPAC is dumping a boatload of foreign money on American elections aimed almost exclusively at eliminating progressives from both state and federal offices. Where is Hillary’s gang and their hand wringing about foreign interference?