this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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Can someone please explain this for a non-German. I know there was a large concern with the AfD, but what do the results mean so far?
It's not as bad as some polls suggested, but it's pretty fucking bad.
There are few options for coalition-building that don't involve the far-right AfD as the other parties have promised. Meanwhile the far-right and conservative right hold an absolute majority between them, giving them options to approve a lot of heinous shit as they've shown they are willing to do in line with their xenophobic rhetoric.
The upsides are that the Left successfully reinvented their profile and made major gains after being pronounced dead (for the 8th time), the Greens didn't lose as much as the anti-woke anti-education narratives suggested, and the neoliberals are fully out after torpedoing their own government coalition.
Germany will probably get a centrist-right (CDU/CSU) government with a centrist-left junior partner (SPD).
Centrist-right is far left in US terms.
I expect stagnancy in German politics for the next 4 years. -_-
So basically as if Democrats won? then why are people so upset?
I don't think I understand
No, more like if (somehow) George Bush and Trump ran against each other and Bush won.
Its far from a great result but its not as bad as it could've been and, from a European standpoint, it means there's strong opposition to Trump and strong support for Ukraine.
Because this kind of coalition was the definition of stale, boring politics in the past. No innovations, mainly slight adjustments here and there.
During the last time that coalition said something like "Das Internet ist für uns alle Neuland." which means something along the line of "The internet is frontier land for all of us." Within seconds #Neuland (frontier land) became the hash tag for a shitstorm that still lasts to this day - after 12 (!) years.
The internet was already established and well in use everywhere for ~20 years. And now the politicians suddenly recognized a new form of communication. If it wasn't so funny I would have cried.
That's why everyone is disappointed. Can't wait to hear what stupid shit this goverment will tell us. 🥱
As a foreigner in Germany, CDU is not centrist at all. Maybe you should consider how your definition of "center" changed in the last years. CDU is a right wing party, CSU even more, leaning into populist views, Afd is extremist.
I wish SPD was left. Most of its policies of the last years were pretty much the same as right wing parties.
CDU was always center-right and SPD center-left. In the last years SPD slowly drifted to center. Some still consider them center-left.
You should check on the definition of extremist. The AfD ist far-right, yes, but not extremist (yet).
Nothing to see here folks. Defenitly NOT an extremist political party. Move along now!!!
It would be extremist if they do that instead of just telling what they would like to do. Trump tells us he wants to annex Canada and Greenland. Does that make him an extremist too?
If Elon Musk is showing up at their events telling them not to be ashamed of their history, then they are absolutely extremist.
The CDU always has contained everything from centre-left to far-right, as long it's compatible with democracy. Their right wing is about en par with Reagan, their left wing with, dunno, Harris, status quo liberals in general. They're not about to abolish public healthcare, gutting unemployment benefits OTOH is up their alley. Social conservatism wise they tend to brake a lot, but aren't prone to be regressive, like wanting to roll back gay rights or something. Or, differently put, they won't be any more conservative the EKD which is absolutely fine with reverends having gay sex in the vicarage as long as it's monogamous.
Socially they absolutely aim to turn back time. They've promised to revoke gender self-identification and marijuana legalization for instance, and they're all in on xenophobic isolationist rhetoric. Regardless of how much they may struggle to come up with excuses to legitimize it, this is what resonates with the people they're courting right now - voters that abandoned them for AfD or at least are considering it.
...no. And their opposition to the law wasn't transphobic (in the strict sense) in the first place but regarded abuse potential, which is why the law that got passed says that name changes are transmitted to police etc. so they can figure out whether someone's trying to escape justice that way. Queer community of course didn't like that but it did insulate the whole thing against attacks from the right.
They won't. Also they'd fail before the constitutional court as outlawing it back then was not scrutinised by the same standards the constitutional court would apply now. Fixing it, OTOH, forget it.
Hell they aren't because SMEs aren't. Merz picked that up in a (stupid) attempt to get AfD votes. The CDU is captured by lobby interests and the lobby wants immigrant workers. Loudly. Vocally. The whole economy of the whole east is up in arms about lacking workers and the AfD scaring away those they could get. They're going to bury the topic as quickly as they can. That Netanjahu invitation might actually be exactly that: That's giving the Springer press opportunity to forget about the whole xenophobia thing and instead focus on purported anti-semitism on the left. Because, *checks notes*, executing international arrest warrants is antisemitic. Expect candlelight vigils with pictures of sniped children, I'm confident Die Linke knows how to play that one, this isn't about preventing the visit at all costs but exposing bigotry on the right. Did I already mention that Merz sucks at strategy?
CDU/CSU are basically what Republicans have been a couple years ago. They are very much far right, just not facist.
Without divine intervention we will get Friedrich Merz as chancellor, the guy who just one month ago was fine with working together with the Neo Nazi party Afd.
So even if a coalition between CDU and Afd isn't happening, our chancellor is kinda Trump light. Mostly in it for himself and his industry buddies, no political experience and not used to doing compromises. And if somebody criticizes him, he cries like a little baby how unfair we are treating him for calling him a fucking fascist sympathizer.
So I expect a shitty time, but it looks like CDU and Afd can't rule alone and the party that is responsible for the whole fiasco, the liberal FDP, got kicked out of the parliament, so at least that is a silver lining.
Aside from what the others have said, there is also a 2nd exit poll, with slightly different estimations. If reality will match this one, the BSW will get into parliament. They are a splinter party of the leftists, taking a most of the tankie nutcases with them.
They won't be in government or important opposition, but if they make it, the 2 centrist parties alone don't have enough seats. This means they need a 3rd party to form a government, and they have no good options. The preferred party would be FDP, but they are estimated to not make it. The greens would normally be up to it, but CDU/CSU campaign has mostly run on getting the greens out of government. And the Leftist, BSW and AFD are all too extreme for the very pensioner friendly CDU/CSU.
There is a chance we simply won't have a stable government and will have to redo this election, but from most to least likely:
Edit: Results are in, BSW missed getting into parliament by a very slim margin. CDU can form a stable Government with SPD.