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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRight-Wing Party In Germany Hopes To Capitalize On Anti-Migrant Anger
By Anthony Faiola March 10 at 3:09 PM
BERLIN In a new German political ad, a young woman in a dimly lit underground crossing gazes directly into the camera. She flashes a concerned look, then references the series of sexual assaults in the city of Cologne allegedly committed by migrants on New Years Eve.
I want to feel carefree and safe when I go out, the woman says in the spot. Afterward, a voice demands the deportation of criminal migrants .
Sponsored by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of key local elections this Sunday, the ad is heralding the rise of a new brand of right-wing populism in this nation still haunted by its Nazi past.
Polling as high as 18 percent in one of the three states where voters are heading to the ballot box this weekend, the three-year-old AfD is catching on as never before. It has done that in part by turning Sundays vote into a referendum on Chancellor Angela Merkels open-door policy for asylum seekers.
After largely wallowing on the fringes of German politics, the party could leverage a strong showing this weekend, emerging as a significant new political force here this despite harsh statements by its leaders deemed outrageous by German political elites and seen by some observers as downright Donald Trumpesque.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/in-germany-a-rising-voice-on-the-right/2016/03/10/c8582e08-e54f-11e5-a9ce-681055c7a05f_story.html
pampango
(24,692 posts)Its a similar phenomenon as Trump, said Heinrich Oberreuter, political scientist at the University of Passau. People are angry at the political establishment, and they feel they are not being taken seriously. Political elites are the targets. Alternative for Germany is an expression, an articulation of this imprecise feeling of dissent.
They are a mix of rather moderate conservatives and people more to the right, with some members flirting with being even further right, said Jürgen Falter, professor of political science at Mainz University. But together, they are no further to the right than the tea party.
The AfD is a party that doesnt unite society and that doesnt offer appropriate solutions for the problems but one that stokes prejudice and divides, Merkel told the German news outlet Bild last week.
Sounds like Germany has a tea party and "Trump" of its own.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Oh, wait a minute...
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)...and correctly so.
If German citizens don't believe their government is putting their citizens first, then those governments get what they deserve.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Thank you, Merkel, for creating this mess. The voters have warned her, the rest of Europe has warned her, let's see if she hears them.