In “The AfD’s Rise Is Angela Merkel’s Legacy,” a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Mark Brolin, we witness one of many new think-pieces about the rise of what the Journal calls a “populist right-wing party” and most other journals call a “far-right party.”
Something strange is happening in Germany. On closer inspection, it isn’t so strange.
In two state elections on Sept. 20, Germany’s political center took another beating. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won a 38.3% plurality, while the center-right Christian Democratic Union managed a mere 4.9%, its worst postwar result in any state election since 1949. In Berlin, the CDU lost first place to Die Linke, successor to the East German communists, while the AfD took more than 16%. Two weeks earlier, the AfD won Saxony-Anhalt. Nationally, it now leads several polls with support approaching 30%.”
This update is an update to a previous update. A lot has happened since early September. But the Journal editorial is looking for explanations. Why is the eastern part of Germany turning “far right”? (I know, groan; what is happening is a turn against the policies of Angela Merkel, her party, and all other parties. And the AfD is not exactly “far right,” though populist is a good word.) Because the center and center-left have gone crazy, perhaps?
All in all, Germany was simultaneously weakening its domestic energy resilience, deepening its dependence on Moscow, and underfunding the military alliance designed to deter Moscow. You hardly needed a doctorate in geopolitics to spot the problem. If anything, a doctorate made it easier to obfuscate the truth. Much of respectable academic and policy opinion was firmly behind Team Merkel.
Read the article online at https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-afds-rise-is-angela-merkels-legacy-15d277b0, or through some service, like Apple News.