Decades after the unification of Germany, the rise of extremist parties has divided the country once again, leaving the left-leaning capital surrounded by a sea of far-right supporters.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right party that has called for the “remigration” of millions of asylum seekers and advocates for reopening ties with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, came second in the national vote on Sunday, winning 20.8 per cent of the vote. The centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which recently courted controversy for using AfD votes to push a proposal through the Bundestag on tougher migration, came first with 28.6 per cent.
The lion’s share of the AfD’s votes, however, came from eastern Germany, where they won a huge majority of the states, losing out only in Leipzig and Berlin.
By contrast, in the west, they won just two states, Gelsenkirchen near Dusseldorf and Kaiserslautern towards the border with France, both by a thin margin over the CDU. The CDU nonetheless won a large share of the rest of the western states.
The country is now one of two halves, the blue of the AfD in the east and the black of the CDU in the west. The division is strikingly similar to the postwar years of East and West Germany. The rise of the AfD, analysts say, comes down to a perception in the eastern half that reunification failed to bring about economic prosperity.
In the capital of Berlin, deep within this sea of blue, residents said they were “devastated” by the result. A 28-year-old woman from central Berlin called Lou said she was “anxious” about the rise of the AfD before suggesting their triumph came at the expense of her friends.
“I’m a white person, so it’s fine for me,” she said, suggesting the AfD base was racist. “But it’s been bad for my friends. They feel really afraid. I feel that, too.”
Armin, 26, and Bora, 44, speaking from near Checkpoint Charlie, said the AfD and its voters were “not smart people” and expressed frustration that its supporters now surrounded them. Jivee, 25, who moved to Berlin from Ireland during the coronavirus pandemic, said he felt less safe because he was of Asian heritage, though he added that he felt at home in the capital.
At a rally in the central-eastern state of Thuringia on Saturday, where the AfD would secure their highest victory on Sunday, winning 38.6 per cent, twice as high as the second-place CDU, locals spoke of a different fear.
Doris, 61, said she had lived her whole life in Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia where the rally was being held, but now she was too scared to go into the city at certain times.
“I don’t go into the city in the dark alone anymore,” she said. “There are so many foreign people. And they are knives, weapons. The police often are there and just look on.”
She cited three terror attacks in the last three months, in the eastern city of Magdeburg in December, the southern city of Aschaffenburg in January and Munich in February, all of which were committed by people not born in Germany, as evidence of the reality of the threat. She made no mention of crimes committed by German-born criminals.
She said she was proud to vote for the Thuringia branch of the AfD despite it having been designated as extremist in 2021 for xenophobia.
Back in Berlin, Lou pointed to the rise of the far-left Die Linke as a saving grace.
Die Linke, which translates to The Left, benefitted from an unexpected show of support, defying expectations to achieve 8.8 per cent of the vote, up from 4.9 per cent in the 2021 election.
A few weeks ago, it was unclear whether they would even reach the five per cent threshold needed to enter the Bundestag.
In Berlin, they emerged victorious with 21.8 per cent, ahead of the CDU on 21.3 per cent and the AfD in third on 15.2 per cent. Much of the AfD votes came from the eastern constituency of Marzahn-Hellersdorf, where they won by just 0.3 per cent over the CDU. It’s the first time in its 12-year history that they have won a Berlin constituency.
Die Linke followed in the footsteps of the AfD by investing heavily in social media to attract the young and previous non-voters. Responding to the push for tougher migration and the rise of the anti-migrant AfD, they also advocated for opening borders completely for uninvited migrants and refugees.
They won a quarter of the 18-25 year-olds vote, ahead of the AfD on 21 per cent.
Both the AfD and Die Linke pulled hundreds of thousands of votes from the more centrist parties, according to projections.
The AfD gained 1 million voters from the CDU, 890,000 from the economically liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) and 720,000 from the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).
At a press conference on Monday from the CDU headquarters in Berlin, the future chancellor Mr Merz said he was “very concerned about what’s happening in the east”.
He said colleagues in the eastern states feared western Germany was only a few years behind and that if they did not fix the issues facing the country, which include migration, the economy and the job market, then the AfD could gain further ground.
It was paramount to “take away the fertile ground from underneath the feet” of the AfD, he added.
Die Linke, meanwhile, gained 560,000 from the SPD and 700,000 from the leftwing Greens. They lost 350,00 to the far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).
Armin and Bora were two of those who shifted to the BSW. Their reasons why were markedly similar to that of Doris in her decision to vote for the AfD: They want an end to the war in Ukraine; both parties had suggested that talks were necessary and that German support was not.
“All the other parties said to give more money to Ukraine and weapons,” said Bora. “But weapons are not the answer. Sit down at the table and talk about it, that is the answer.”
