ER Editor: An historic local win just happened in Germany for a representative of Germany’s AfD (Alternative fur Deutschland) party, labelled predictably as ‘ultra right’ by the MSM. Robert Sesselmann took the Sonneberg district seat, which is on the eastern side of Germany near Czechia, as shown below:
AfD started out as a party responding to the economic needs of the poorer regions of East Germany, formerly communist. It was founded by economists lest anyone think it was founded by a bunch of racists. We are thoroughly suspicious of the London School of Economics, but they did put out this piece in 2017 on the AfD founders, whose basic intention was to get out of the euro —
A right-wing populist party founded by economists: the strange case of Germany’s AfD
The RT piece below by Isaak Funke has been machine-translated.
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Translation; Today, the AfD #Thuringia once again sets an exclamation mark that is perceived throughout the republic. Robert #Sesselmann has prevailed against the united old party cartel and is Germany’s first AfD district councillor!
Die AfD #Thüringen setzt heute wieder ein Ausrufungszeichen, das in der ganzen Republik wahrgenommen wird. Robert #Sesselmann hat sich gegen das vereinte Altparteienkartell durchgesetzt und ist der erste AfD-Landrat Deutschlands! pic.twitter.com/8j43EgBEIv
— Björn Höcke (@BjoernHoecke) June 25, 2023
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From here:
Germany’s far-right AfD party wins historic victory in local election (msn.com)
“Robert Sesselmann has made history,” tweeted AfD co-chief Alice Weidel.
Translation: Robert #Sesselmann has made history: He is the first #AfD district councillor in Germany! Congratulations to #Sonneberg, many thanks to all campaigners, supporters and especially voters. This is just the beginning!
Robert #Sesselmann hat Geschichte geschrieben: Er ist der erste #AfD-Landrat in Deutschland! Herzlichen Glückwunsch nach #Sonneberg, vielen Dank an alle Wahlkämpfer, Unterstützer und vor allem Wähler. Das ist erst der Anfang! pic.twitter.com/lnrhFyAX5R
— Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel) June 25, 2023
“The milestone comes as recent surveys put support for the AfD at a record 18 to 20 percent, neck-and-neck with Chancellor Olaf Scholz‘s Social Democrats and behind only the conservative CDU/CSU bloc.”
“Robert Sesselmann, a lawyer and regional lawmaker, came out on top in a closely watched runoff vote for district administrator in Sonneberg in the central state of Thuringia, near the border with Bavaria.
Sesselmann took 52.8 percent of the vote, according to the electoral office.”
“The AfD is polling even better in the former communist East German states of Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony, which will see regional elections next year where the AfD is hoping to score major breakthroughs.”
“Germany’s best-selling Bild newspaper called Sesselmann’s win a political “earthquake” and “a remarkable success for the ultra-right party”.
Interesting times.
Note the reporting from the left wing MSM. Anything in the centre of the political spectrum is “ultra-right”!
Onwards
Source
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The mysterious rise of the AfD
The establishment cannot explain the rapid rise of the AfD or resorts to absurd theories. The reasons are obvious. If politicians really want to prevent the party from rising further, they would have to tackle the problems that concern the citizens.
ISAAK FUNKE for RT.DE
Suddenly everyone is talking about the rapid rise of the “Alternative for Germany” ( AfD ).
In polls, the right-wing conservative party is between 18 and 19 percent nationwide. In Thuringia, it was recently able to reach up to 30 percent, putting it ahead of all other parties. As always, the mainstream media is at a loss as to how to explain this rise.
Some try to appease and point to the error tolerance of surveys, which is a few percentage points. It is therefore possibly just a statistical deviation – no need to worry, carry on as usual! But the AfD’s strengthening trend is a long-term one. In the last federal elections, the party was just over 10.3 percent, now it is scratching the 20 percent mark. This is by no means just a deviation within the framework of statistical error tolerance, but reflects real social trends.
The others blame the Union parties and / or the FDP and claim that they have “normalized right-wing populist narratives”. Similar accusations are leveled at the media, which has secured support for the party by reporting on the refugee issue and by giving the AfD a platform.
However, these theories go completely in the wrong direction. Because the overwhelming majority of people are not so stupid that it would be enough to feed them any propaganda or “narrative” to make them accept the former. The media can definitely influence the mood; however, if they alone were decisive, any government with enough media support could remain in power virtually indefinitely. However, there have always been overthrows (ER: overreaching?) and the failure of such governments in history, so that one can confidently drop this idea. The immediate reality of people’s lives has a much greater influence on their thoughts.
It would also be a gross distortion to claim that the AfD was deliberately promoted by the establishment. The opposite is the case: for years, the Union under Merkel vehemently distanced itself from the AfD – and yet the right-wing conservatives were able to continue to expand their support base.
With regard to the media, too, it is obvious that they constantly criticize and demonstrated the AfD. If the AfD was mentioned at all, it was generally with a critical undertone. The German media representatives are predominantly supporters of the Greens. A large majority of journalists flirt with red-green. The claim that the AfD’s high ratings in the polls can be explained primarily by the fact that it is being artificially promoted by other parties or the media is absurd.
Anyone who has followed the news regularly and attentively in recent months will easily be able to identify the real reason for the continued rise of the AfD. Again and again, local politicians complained about major problems regarding immigration policy and called for support. They also explicitly warned that the mood of the population could change.
Even green local politicians saw this danger. For example, Jens Marco Scherf, district administrator of the district of Miltenberg in Bavaria, warned in an interview with the FAZ at the beginning of February that the refugees who were admitted in 2022 could no longer be cared for. There is a lack of housing and staff. Due to the lack of resources, integration becomes “a product of chance”. In contrast to the dictum of Angela Merkel in 2015, he asserted: “We will not succeed.”
In a letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz ( SPD ), Scherf called for asylum migration to be limited. Also at the beginning of February, several local politicians from various parties sent a fire letter to Scholz demanding that migration be limited and controlled. At the end of the letter they demanded:
“You should also actively lead people who are illegally staying in the Federal Republic back so that we can use our resources for those who really need our help!”
People see the local problems in their communities and expect a solution from the state. This, however, hid for far too long and instead tried to appease. “We can do it!” is still the slogan. Instead of addressing citizens’ concerns and taking them seriously, politicians and the media demonize them.
While the municipalities complained more and more loudly about the problems with migration, the federal government, under the decisive influence of the Greens, was mainly busy pushing through the unpopular and anti-social heating law. For millions of owners, but also tenants of older properties, the introduction of this law would cause high costs – of all things at a time when not only the lower class, but also increasingly the middle class is financially under pressure. The war in Ukraine, the economic decoupling from Russia, rising energy prices and record-breaking inflation, which above all makes everyday goods more expensive, are fueling the masses’ fears of social decline even further.
So it really surprising that, after being repeatedly disappointed and disregarded by mainstream media and politicians, some citizens are turning to a party that promises to tackle these very problems?
The fact that the majority of these citizens primarily want a solution to these problems and are by no means completely in line with the AfD ideologically, and cannot therefore be simply labeled as “right-wing extremists”, can be seen from the fact that the reason repeatedly given for the turn to the AfD in surveys is the disappointment about and the protest against established politics. It is therefore up to federal politicians to do something really effective against the rise of the AfD. By taking away the burning issues and alleviating the migration problem, stopping the anti-social and anti-liberty measures in the name of “climate protection” and striving for a compromise with Russia.
However, this is hardly to be expected from the current government. Thus, the most likely scenario is that the AfD will continue to gain approval.
Source
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Featured image, Robert Sesselmann election poster: Elena Sevillano
Published to The Liberty Beacon from EuropeReloaded.com
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