Nina Haase
Appearances
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
The headline is that the Conservatives... swept the Social Democrats out of the Chancellery and we will see a new German government in a couple of weeks time that is going to be led by the Conservatives in a coalition probably with the Social Democrats and that is still going to be a pro-European, a centrist government facing lots and lots of challenges. Also the
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
headline underneath is that for the very first time in a national poll, a far-right party, the AfD, managed to get one in five German voters to vote for them. Who is the new chancellor? The new chancellor is a man called Friedrich Merz. He's a grandfather. He is not an unknown figure. He entered politics in the 1990s, and he was then
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
swept out of political power by a certain Angela Merkel from his same party. He then re-entered politics when Angela Merkel left, and he has decided to shape the Conservatives in a way that He sees fit to deal with the current challenges. He was always a fierce critic of Angela Merkel's open-door policy.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
So he's adopted a much more hard-line stance on immigration, for example, and that has been one of the key issues for him in this election campaign.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
The other issues were that Germans showed a lot of desire for change, big change. The current government had started out on a progressive, on a liberal agenda, and then Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. So they had to make a lot of... Very tough decisions. They had to try and keep the country together at very, very challenging times. So we had a lot of political infighting.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
And the conservatives at the time were the biggest opposition power. So they used that to their advantage. to essentially say this government is overwhelmed and we're going to be the ones dealing with all the desire for change that Germans are expressing. They want more clarity when it comes to immigration. They want the German economy to get going again.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
Germany's economy is very sluggish at the moment. And these were the core topics that the conservatives focused on and won.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
The AFD is called Alternative for Germany. That's the name that they've given themselves. They're a fairly young party. They were founded just over 10 years ago. They started off on a platform that was EU skeptic, that wanted to get out of the Euro, the common currency that we have here in Europe. And over the years, they have radicalized.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
They have gone from being an economy-focused, financial policy-focused party to being an anti-immigrant, pro-Russia, pro-China party. And that is something where lots of people here in Germany are saying this would shake up the fundamental pillars of of the liberal democratic system that we have here in this country. They are under observation by Germany's intelligence agencies.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
They have people in their ranks that have very close ties to the Kremlin. They have a leading figure in the east of the country who is a history teacher, but says that Germany needs to move on and stop this whining about this short period of time when this thing called the Holocaust happens.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
And that is, of course, something that has made a lot of alarm bells ring here in Germany, given our history, where many people feel reminded of just how quickly populism can lead to real life fascism. Having said all that, the AFD say of themselves that they are libertarian conservative. They got a big push in this election campaign by Elon Musk.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
He held an hour-long chat with their co-leader Alice Weidel and gave them a lot of visibility on his own platforms.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
So they have definitely benefited from that. They've also managed to be very present in market squares. So they're very visible. They're very good at describing problems. They haven't offered many workable solutions when you look at the details in their programs. But what they've also done is they've convinced a lot of working class people to vote for them instead of the social democrats. Wow.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
They're now the second strongest political group in the parliament. And that means that they have certain privileges when it comes to politics. appointing the chairpeople of the committees, for example. So traditionally, the biggest opposition group, which is in this case the AFD, they lead the budget committee, so they can influence the agenda of committee meetings.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
then the AFD also gets a lot of time to address Parliament as the second biggest group in Parliament, so shaping the debate in Parliament. We'll hear a lot more from them. And last not least, we have a system here in this country where you have a blocking minority for certain fundamental changes to our basic law. And the AFD alone cannot do that at the moment.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
But if, for example, the current government wanted to make fundamental changes to the constitution to allow for more spending in support of Ukraine, then they would have to change the constitution because that is currently a part of our constitution. And the AFD, together with the far left, Die Linke, that also made it into Bundestag, can now block that.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
The AFD is not going to get into government. I think that is a very important message to send also to listeners in the US, that it's considered way too far right by all the other democratic parties, and the conservatives have therefore ruled out collaborating with them. That is known as the firewall here, that the firewall still stands because of our country's history.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
Now, the AfD are also very clear that they were aware that they wouldn't enter government this time, but they're hoping for an unstable German government under Friedrich Merz now in the next couple of years. And they have their eyes on 2029 when they say that their positions... will become so normalized that they might then actually enter government, if not the chancellery.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
The results mean that Friedrich Merz will have to enter coalition negotiations very quickly with the Social Democrats and very quickly come to a good deal with them so that he can form a stable government. He has a lot of challenges ahead of him.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
So he said he needs to get the government together and in a stable way so that Germany can answer and give proper solutions to all these issues. geopolitical challenges that we're facing because at the moment the feeling is that liberal democracy in Europe is under threat from Russia.
Today, Explained
Germany's rightward march
We're considered to be in a hybrid war with Russia and also increasingly from the United States new administration.