The result of the German federal elections Sunday was announced the same day they were held, delivering first place to the “conservative” Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) on 28 percent of the vote, and second place to the populist and MAGA-allied Alternative for Germany (AfD) on 21 percent.
Despite more than doubling its vote share since 2020, taking almost a quarter of the 630 parliamentary seats, the populist party is unlikely to enter government.
All other German parties have agreed to a “firewall” – forbidding any of them from ever cooperating with AfD to form a government. The most obvious partner, the winning CDU/CSU, has 208 seats – far short of the 316 it requires for a governing majority.
AfD leader Alice Weidel warned yesterday evening that “if the CDU commits electoral fraud by entering coalition with the left, the next election will come sooner than you think. Then we will overtake the CDU as the strongest force. This is our goal.”
Even the victorious CDU leader Friedrich Merz said the AfD’s strong showing was a “real alarm bell” for the liberal globalist consensus – as he insisted no talks would take place to govern with AfD.
Though the AfD is reported to have won over 150 seats, a coalition with them has been ruled out under an anti-populist arrangement known as the “Brandmauer,” or “firewall.”
The result in Germany shows the crisis in European liberal democracy: it can only continue if it bans parties with popular politics.
The German parliament discussed banning the AfD weeks before the election, placingit under state surveillance four years ago. Violently suppressed, AfD members have suffered a surge of violent attacks for almost 10 years. Regional party chairman Frank Magnitz was “beaten unconscious” in 2019, and a councilor stabbed last June following a rising number of assaults on party officials.
Marine Le Pen’s similarly right-populist National Assembly (RN) and the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) are also “firewalled” from governing. The French government which emerged from elections last summer collapsed in December, with new elections expected in July this year. The “far-right” FPO of Austria came first in the elections, but five months later Austrian parties are still struggling to form a government without them.
This means that in Europe democracy must be suspended to save democracy, much as how European Union (EU) leader Ursula von der Leyen has moved to limit free speech. Her Orwellian “European Democracy Shield” was announced in May 2024 – presenting Europe-wide censorship as a vital defense against the freedom of speech.
1 comment:
Back in the good old days political parties with a conservative bent, beaten by stuffing the ballot box with phony votes (Cook County & S. Texas - 1960). Today, even with a win, conservatives cannot take power using the current European model. Conservatives nationalistic - this does not pass the smell test for 666.
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