Isabella M. Weber in The Nation:
This week we saw the electoral consequences of a failed economic paradigm: The parties comprising the market fundamentalist conservatives and right-wingers achieved a landslide victory in Germany. The CDU/CSU, led by the former head of Blackrock Germany, Friedrich Merz, won 28.5 percent of the vote and the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the far-right party of former Goldman Sachs banker, Alice Weidel, won 20.8 percent. What had started as Germany’s “progress coalition” of social democrats, greens, and liberals failed. There were two key turning points: In 2022, the energy crisis in the wake of the Ukraine war hit the country hard, and free-market dogmatism delayed the response to price explosions. In 2023, economists who had long argued that markets were perfectly capable of handling the energy crisis and no major government measures were needed proclaimed that there was “not even a recession.” Without an emergency situation, it appeared as if there was no need to suspend the debt brake, a stringent fiscal rule that tied the government’s hands. Germany did enter a recession, and the economic crisis ultimately brought down the government.
The reasons behind this result? A loss of confidence in the government, a bitter migration debate, the loss of real wages in recent years, and an ongoing economic crisis. In particular, frustration with economic conditions strengthened the far-right AfD. Because when the economic pie starts shrinking, the struggles over how to divide it escalate.
For example, 37 percent of AfD voters and 18 percent of CDU/CSU voters assessed their own economic situation as poor. Tellingly, voters of left-wing and left-liberal parties are significantly less concerned about their economic situation. Even more serious: 85 percent of AfD voters believe that things are not fair in Germany. The overall economic situation was also considered poor by 96 percent of AfD voters and 90 percent of CDU/CSU voters. Here, too, the figures are significantly higher than for the other parties.
More here.
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