The three parties comprising the German coalition government—Social Democrats, Greens, Free Democrats—were all losers in the elections for European Parliament on Sunday, June 9. The result against the Greens was of particular note: They lost 40% of the voters, dropping to 11.9%, as compared to their result four years ago. This reflects the growing disgust at the Greens’ disastrous dual policy, of the war and the Green Deal. The results for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and for the new Sahra Wagenknecht Party, the BSW, also reflected the growing opposition to the government’s policies: In spite of a very massive anti-right-wing propaganda campaign by all the other parties, the AfD came out as second strongest, after the Christian Democrats. The BSW, which strongly rejects continuing to supply weapons to Ukraine, received more votes than the aggressively pro-war Free Democrats.
The election also showed a division between the Western and Eastern parts of Germany: whereas the Christian Democrats dominated in the Western districts, the AfD was the winner in almost all districts in the Eastern states. And the BSW, founded as a party just this past March, surfaced as the third-strongest, after the Christian Democrats. The next big shock for the established parties is expected soon. They will soon face the prospect of the AfD also winning the three state parliament elections this September (Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg) where the constellation, indicated also by opinion polls, is the same, with the Christian Democrats being second, and the BSW being third. A serious political crisis affecting all of Germany is preprogrammed, not only in these three states, but in all of Germany, should the other parties continue to boycott the AfD, which then would not be able to form a government majority after the September elections.
