Thursday, June 16, 2016

What just happened in Germany?

The University of Leipzig has recently carried out a survey of 2,240 German people, apparently in an attempt to understand why large numbers of Germans voted for the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the recent state elections back in March of this year.

I am unclear whether this can be defended as a large enough and proper representative sample of general opinion, but see here, here, here, here, and here.

Amongst their findings is: 50% of those surveyed complained that they sometimes felt like “foreigners in their own country.” The percentage rises to 85.9% amongst voters for Alternative for Germany (AfD) (see here in German).

About 40% said people of a certain Third World religion should be forbidden from migrating to Germany.

Of those surveyed, 49.6% said that Roma Gypsies should be banned from inner cities.

11% said Jews “have too much influence.”

Could it be that open borders, the EU, and failed neoliberalism are driving Germans to hold more and more illiberal, intolerant and extreme opinions?

Maybe it’s time to terminate the EU, neoliberalism and mass immigration?

6 comments:

  1. when you deligetmize normal critique and moderate movements which is against identity politics and post modernism you lunch radicla ilberal critique against it and you boost the support of radical populist movements instead.

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  2. The mentioned numbers are above average in areas where little to no migration has taken place, especially eastern germany.

    Those far-right fear-mongerers like AfD or in the freedom Party in Austria created their own bubble which is full of hatred, ignorance, racism and conspiracy theories.
    The conservatives are jumping on that bandwagon and try to overtake them on the right whilst pushing their neoliberal agenda.
    Social democrats in Germany are not able to counter them - no wonder, they only thing left they have in common with the idea of social democracy is their name.
    Austria got a new chancellor recently, who seems capable of challenging those nutheads of the freedom party and reviving the austrian sd party.

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    Replies
    1. if european left will continue to challange right wing extremists with tones of toxic identity politics and open border policy the left would not able to handle the situation.

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  3. 2200 is a good sample size if it is really random. The error bars will be a few per cent.

    I fail to see how neoliberalism has failed in Germany, but on the other points you are right.

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    1. They forced internal devaluation on german workers they are salary stagnating for 2 deceades to support german exports.

      (workers subsidize exports instead of thr government)

      I dont see it as something good also a lot of german managers support this immigration because they hope they will be their cheap labour.

      Or something like that

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  4. I was in Gersthofen, an industrial town outside Augsburg on Tuesday, after a day of factory meeting, before dinner I took a walk: about half of the people I saw were Muslims, mostly women in their distinctive attire and their children.

    They were in the parks and taking strolls. I suspect this demographic makes more use of public space than the average German who's demographic profile is older.

    This visibility may account for reactions. I was struck myself and I live in Brooklyn next to a park who's population is roundly integrated: what I normally see near home is a true polyglot, what I saw in Germany was clearly bi-polar, Germans and Muslims.

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