Another alarm - When #fascism becomes institutionalised in #Germany
The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (#AfD) has led most German national polls since April last year. It is comfortably ahead in eastern Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and is even second in famously liberal Berlin.
Under Germany’s proportional representation threshold, which excludes parties that capture less than 5% of the vote, a score in the low-to-mid 40s could quite conceivably secure AfD an absolute majority in the Saxony-Anhalt parliament.
...there’s another dimension to a possible AfD victory in Saxony-Anhalt that deserves a closer look. For decades, Germany’s political parties have operated a so-called “Brandmauer”, or firewall, to prevent the normalisation of far-right extremism.
First, as The Economist argued, by making the AfD a political pariah, the Brandmauer has in effect insulated the party from the compromises and failures of government. With no need to deliver actual results, it can promise voters whatever it likes (and it does).
Second, as the German academic Alexander Görlach observed, the firewall has “hollowed-out” the centre: to build majorities excluding the far right, the #CDU has had to enter “Grand Coalitions” with its historic adversary, the centre-left #SPD.
Over time, this constant reliance on uncomfortable alliances and ideological compromise has blurred the distinctions between the mainstream parties, reinforcing the AfD’s line that the establishment forces are carbon-copy “cartel parties”.
In 2018, four years before he became CDU leader, Merz promised to halve the AfD’s score. Since then, it has almost doubled. As elsewhere in Europe, shifting rightward, notably on immigration, has served only to validate the far right’s agenda.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/19/germanys-firewall-was-meant-to-hold-the-far-right-at-bay-it-may-have-done-the-reverse
AfD could access German intelligence data if it forms state government
A right-wing opposition party cannot be legally barred from accessing German intelligence data if it forms a state government following regional elections, according to a constitutional law expert cited by the Welt newspaper on Monday.
Constitutional law expert Christoph Degenhart stated that excluding a state government formed by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) from intelligence information systems is practically impossible from a legal standpoint, Welt reported.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/afd-could-access-german-intelligence-data-if-it-forms-state
#racism #extremeright #farRight #fascists #institutionalracism #institutionalFascism #capitalism #neoliberalism #democracy #government
