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Centre-right CDU and CSU parties win election, say exit polls
Germany’s centre-right CDU and CSU parties have won the federal elections with about 28.5 to 29 per cent of the vote according to exit polls, paving the way for CDU leader Friedrich Merz to become chancellor at a time of economic and political upheaval in Europe’s largest democracy.
The far-right Alternative for Germany co-led by Alice Weidel recorded its best result with 19.5 — 20 per cent of the vote on Sunday, according to the preliminary projections by state broadcasters ARD and ZDF. That is double what the anti-immigration party achieved in 2021.
Meanwhile Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party won just 16 to 16.5 per cent of the votes.
Nazis won’t be part of the government after this result.
The conservatives have stated before the election that they won’t form a coalition with the far right AfD, the green party or the left party. But with this result, they have a majority with the social democrats alone.
This will be a stable, centrist, boring government, typically German. Too little progress, but no catastrophe, and no threat to EU democracy, nor to international obligations or support for Ukraine. Neither party are Putin bootlickers either.
In the opposition, the greens and the left combined have more seats than the AfD. And 84% turnout is the highest since 1987!!!
Good old boring politics. Those were the days…
Yeah, what I would give for more milquetoast leadership in Washington instead of this dumpster fire.
Unfortunately those days gave AfD what they needed to attract the common man. A forgotten working class.
The AfD really started picking up support with the asylum crisis, we had many boring years before that.
I just think that you can’t just follow a standard “boring” centre-right policy playbook and expect the far-right voters to disappear. AfD might get classified as an extremist group and not be allowed in the next election, but that demographic won’t go anywhere. In fact, having their representation forcibly removed from parliament is likely to galvanise them.
The underlying problems need to be addressed.
One part is addressing the problem, another part is addressing the lies that have exaggerated the problem. Both are important.
Yes, they’ve been lied to about the reason for their lives are hard and the problems they have. However they won’t accept that they have been lied to if all you do is tell them. Words won’t do it. Actions are necessary to demonstrate they are wrong.