German voters move further to the right – DW – 10/09/2023

The parties of Chancellor Olaf Scholz‘s three-party governing coalition recorded losses in Sunday’s state elections in Bavaria and Hesse. The results were particularly bitter for Scholz and his center-left Social Democrats (SPD), as they achieved the worst results in postwar history. In Bavaria, the smallest party in Scholz’s government, the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) party did not even clear the 5% hurdle for representation in the state parliament.

At the same time, the right-wing extremist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) triumphed. The party, which has been classified as an anti-constitutional suspect by the domestic intelligence service, managed record results in both West German state elections: In Bavaria, they became the third-strongest political force with a 14.6% share of the vote, and in Hesse, they even came in as the second strongest at 18.4%.

As the incumbents from the center-right — the Christian Democrats (CDU) in Hesse and the Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria — won in both states, there will be no immediate impact on the political balance of power in the country. “In Germany, centrist parties continue to dominate the political discourse,” political scientist Karl-Rudolf Korte told public broadcaster ZDF. “However, we see that there is a shift to the right not only in public discourse but now also in elections,” Korte said.

In its election campaign, the AfD focused primarily on the issues of asylum and migration. The party is calling for the deportation of millions of rejected asylum seekers from Germany and other European states. For years the AfD has been deliberately stoking fears of Muslims and immigrants — especially from Africa and the Middle East. Despite the country’s massive labor shortage and need to attract immigrants to fill jobs, immigration to Germany is something the AfD wants to radically limit. This stance seems to be resonating with many German voters: according to recent figures from the pollster infratest.dimap, the AfD was able to attract non-voters and also supporters from all other political parties. Among first-time voters, it has even become the second-strongest force.

Following the publication of Sunday’s election results, AfD co-chair Alice Weidel took up the topic of migration in a press conference. She claimed that Germany was allowing people from Iraq, Syria and other countries into the country “unchecked,” without clarifying what she meant. “There must be an immediate stop to the immigration of people from these states,” Weidel demanded. However, she failed to mention that the overwhelming majority of asylum people from Syria who requested asylum in Germany have been granted asylum and therefore reside in the country with full legal status.

The issue of migration has dominated public debate in Germany for months. Calls to carry out more deportations of rejected asylum seekers have been growing louder. Recently, the number of asylum seekers has risen again. Up to and including September 2023, more than 250,000 asylum applications were filed in Germany— more than the previous year’s total, according to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. According to the agency, the vast majority of asylum seekers have a legal right to protection and thus a right to stay.

Meanwhile, there are cross-party calls in favor of limiting the numbers of new arrivals of people from abroad, although it is not clear exactly how or under which mechanisms this could be done.

The center-right CDU/CSU in particular, have taken up the issues of asylum and migration. On the day after the elections in Bavaria and Hesse, they called on Chancellor Scholz to act on migration policy. “We can see, after all, that things are tilted in Germany,” CDU Secretary-General Carsten Linnemann said on public broadcaster ARD tv’s morning show, referring to the high refugee numbers. Schools and daycare centers do not have enough staff to care for children, he said, and the burden is also evident in the healthcare system. The opposition CDU is offering to cooperate with the federal government to find solutions for these systemic and structural problems.

And the pressure is likely to result in government action. Social Democrat co-chair Saskia Esken promised quick decisions on the subject of migration: “On migration policy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reached out to the federal states, municipalities and the CDU/CSU for cooperation, ” she said after the meeting of the party executive committee this Monday.

But numerous NGOs and associations have warned against undermining Germany’s asylum law. An alliance of 270 scientists recently called for a human rights pact for refugee policy, pointing to the historical context for the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees: “During the Second World War, Nazi violence led to the persecution, expulsion and murder of millions of people. Attempts to reach an agreement in the international community to accept Jewish and other refugees failed; in the face of death, many therefore faced closed doors.” Instead of stoking fears of immigrants and refugees, he said, policymakers should engage in a “fact-based, empirical, and constructive” debate.

This article was originally written in German.

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