The results of the European Parliament elections, held on 6-9 June, showed a clear shift to the right, while green and left-wing parties suffered significant losses.
These developments were particularly notable in Germany, where the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) received 15.9 % of the vote, making it the second strongest party behind the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
The AfD came out on top in areas that were formerly East Germany, while the centre-right alliance of the CDU and the Christian Socialist Union (CSU) won in former West Germany, indicating lingering divisions 35 years after reunification. Economic disparities further divide the country, with East Germany far weaker than the West.
Both the German Left Party and the country’s Green Party lost votes in the key EU elections. At 2.7%, support for the Left Party has halved since the 2019 elections, which had also proved a serious defeat. The Green Party achieved a record high in 2019, coming in second behind the CDU with 20.5%, but also came in low this year at 11.9 %, in fourth place.
CSU and AfD called for snap elections in Germany in response to the 31% support gained in the EU elections for the country’s ruling alliance of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Free Democrats (FDP) and the Green Party combined, but the call was rejected by the German government.
The results, however, came as no surprise, as pre-poll surveys had shown that a large proportion of young people intended to vote for the far-right AfD, with its populist election campaign, especially backing their policies on migration.
Over the last two years, the party, which is classified by the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution as right-wing and extremist, has reached a wide audience of young people, especially on the social media platform Tiktok, using an emotionally charged campaign which emphasised demands for the mass deportation of migrants from Germany and the expansion of the German army. Furthermore, the AfD presented itself as a voice against current government policy.
Commentators point to the voter transgression from the Green Party being influenced by a perceived shift from pro-peace to pro-war agenda, due to the party’s support for arming the Ukrainians against the Russian invasion. Additionally, it has been muted that the party’s costly climate policy, driven by taxpayers’ money, had disappointed loyal Green Party supporters invested in sustainable solutions.
An anti-fascist youth conference held this weekend in Germany proposed “openly approaching our fellow citizens, taking their problems seriously and finding solutions together”, in mitigation of the shift to the right.
