Mathew D. Rose – German legacy political parties suffer another major setback in election in Brandenburg

Just three weeks after the double election debacle of Germany’s West German legacy parties, they have suffered a third major setback  yesterday.

Mathew D. Rose is an Investigative Journalist specialised in Organised Political Crime in Germany and an editor of BRAVE NEW EUROPE

When the leaders of the West German legacy political parties were informed of the voter turnout in Sunday’s election in the state of Brandenburg, they knew they were in trouble. 73 percent of the state’s voters had cast ballots, an increase of 11,7 Percent in comparison to the 61.3 percent that voted in the 2019 election. The success of these parties has always been based on maintaining their dominance by driving voters out of the political process through not offering any policy alternatives,. This concept is now in complete disarray in the Eastern part of Germany as two new political parties have arisen and mobilised voters.

The result in Brandenburg was reminiscent of the elections three weeks ago in the states of Saxony and Thuringia: a resounding defeat. The West German legacy parties – Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, the Greens, and Liberals – combined had just a few votes more than the two new parties, the fascist AfD and the social-democratic Bund Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) together.

The Social Democrats (SPD) edged out the AfD for first place with 30.9 percent of the votes compared to the AfD’s 29.3 percent. But the surge in SPD votes was due to strategic voting by voters of the other legacy parties. The Christian Democrats, despite moving to the far-right lost almost a quarter of its votes, ending with its worst performance in East Germany ever, 12.1 percent. The recently created party Bund Sahra Wagenknecht ended up ahead of the Christian democrats with 13.5 percent and thus in third place. The Greens received only 4.1 percent of the votes, having lost 60 percent of its voters after shifting to the far-right and wholeheartedly supporting Israel’s genocide in Palestine and the NATO proxy war in Ukraine. The latter is an issue that has brought the AfD and BSW, both of whom are avowed opponents of the proxy war, a great deal of support. Immigration has also been an issue, but in the meantime the legacy parties have adopted similar racist policies as the AfD was demanding. The Greens will not be represented in the state parliament falling below the 5 per cent threshold required to guarantee representation in the local parliament. The Liberals did not even obtain one percent of the vote.

What this means is that the legacy parties, Social and Christian Democrats have only half the seats in Brandenburg’s state parliament, 44, while the AfD and the BSW have the other half. As in Saxony and Thuringia, forming a coalition will be difficult. Odd that the authoritarian liberal political class is claiming this as a victory?

It is worth mentioning that the SPD was strongest around Berlin, the white island in the middle of the map below, as many West German citizens of Berlin moved to the capital of Brandenburg, Potsdam, just a few kilometres from Berlin, as well as into the many new suburbs that were built just over the border from Berlin following reunification. These are marked on the map in red. Thus there is a sizeable West German population that has colonised these parts of Brandenburg. The SPD was also very strong in the more affluent cities. The AfD (marked in Blue) was predominant in the countryside.

It is unclear what the consequences of the three recent elections will be for the West German legacy parties at the national level. For those in the current coalition – Social Democrats, Greens, and Liberals – it would normally mean major shifts in policy. The Christian Democrats and Greens have discovered, moving to the far-right has not brought any benefits. To the contrary. Who needs them when one has the real thing with the AfD. The Greens have come to realise that they have lost their traditional support, especially among the youth, with their genocidal warmongering and botched Green Transition. The liberals would probably like to leave the coalition, but they know that in a national election they would probably not reach the five percent hurdle, and once again not be represented in the Bundestag, cutting them off from the valuable sources of corruption that are available there, not to mention not having their snouts in the richly filled trough that one has access to while in government.

The Social Democrats greatest enemy is demography as most of their voters are sixty years old and older. Although they are claiming that their win in Brandenburg is a new start, in the national polls the party is still in decline. In the recent EU parliamentary election they only received 13.9 percent of the votes. It is questionable if Scholz will be the SPD chancellor candidate in the general election in a year’s time.

All three coalition parties have also committed themselves fanatically to the proxy war in Ukraine, so that they would lose all credibility if they did a volte face, although the SPD chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is working in that direction. They are also driving on their catastrophic neo-liberal policies, including the debt-brake in the midst of a recession.

The Christian democrats simply do not seem to be able to utilise the disastrous performance of the coalition, probably the most unpopular government since the establishment of the Federal Republic. Their lead candidate, Friedrich Merz, is disliked by most Germans, which is not helping matters. They also have no policies that are any better than those of the coalition, which is why they are trying to co-opt those of the AfD.

The West German legacy parties are in a crisis and have no idea how to get out of it. They have committed themselves to accept the geopolitical and economic hegemony of the United States, which does not leave them much room for manoeuvre and has led their economy into a recession and deindustrialisation. Furthermore they are confronted with a likely calamity in the Ukraine war, for which the US expects the Europeans, especially Germany, to finance. So the inexorable decline of the authoritarian liberal legacy parties in Germany continues.

Due to the Israeli war crimes in Gaza we have increased our coverage from five to six days a week. We do not have the funds to do this, but felt that it was the only right thing to do. So if you have not already donated for this year, please do so now. To donate please go HERE.