On 1 September 2024, the far-fight party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD – Alternative for Germany) came first in the German state elections for Thuringia, with a third of the vote (32.8%). This was the first time that the AfD had won a state election. The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came second with 23.6%.
On the same day the AfD gained 30.6% in the state elections for Saxony, coming second to the CDU which won narrowly with 31.9%.
In both elections the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD), the German equivalent of the UK Labour Party, which is in a so-called ‘traffic-light coalition’ government with the Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), won only 6.1% in Thuringia and 7.3% in Saxony. The votes for the Greens and FDP also fell.
Against a background of austerity and unemployment, the AfD has advanced on the basis of vile anti-immigrant, Islamophobic and xenophobic rhetoric.
In response to the election results in Thuringia and Saxony the SDP Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the tightening up of border controls by Germany within the EU, in the vain hope of stopping the rise of the AfD.
But responding to the far-right by clamping down further on immigration will not stop the rise of the far-right AfD. It will only give credence to the AfD. People will see it as a vindication of the AfD’s arguments. The far-right cannot and will not be beaten by adapting to or adopting its racist anti-immigration policies. It will just fuel support for the AfD. Every time the SDP takes a step in the direction of the AfD’s anti-immigration positions the SDP undermines its own position and strengthens the AfD. It makes the AfD appear to be correct, and those who agree with them will support the AfD, not the SDP.
The only way to stop the rise of the far-right is to combat their ideology entirely, and to present a real alternative – not just for Germany but for the whole of Europe and the rest of the world. That means arguing for an alternative to the entire capitalist profit system.
Migration and the search for asylum are driven by crises created by the capitalist system. Migration is driven by the desire to escape poverty, to look for work, safety, a decent place to live and to bring up your children. Asylum seekers are fleeing persecution, oppression, wars, starvation, disease. All of these problems are the consequence of the capitalist system, with its competition for profit, for land and resources, leading to conflict, wars, repression and violence without relief.
But the SDP is not going to argue that. It defends the interests of the capitalist class and will not do anything to undermine support for capitalism.
In Germany, as in Britain and elsewhere, we need new working class socialist/communist parties that confront and answer the racist anti-immigration narrative and place the blame for the social, economic and political crises where they belong – with the capitalist system and all those parties which defend it.
Socialists refuse to turn out backs on those seeking refuge, risking their lives to find a better place for themselves and their children. We will not turn them away. We reject the nationalist arguments that would see migrants turned away at the borders or drown in the seas rather than provide them with a home, with education, care, and protection for their children.
Socialists don’t blame immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers for the cost of living crisis, austerity, lack of decent jobs and housing or the erosion and disappearance of services, because they are not responsible.
The capitalist system and those who run it are responsible. This anti-immigration narrative is a deliberate device to divide the working class along national, racial, and religious lines. We must remain united.
Unity is Strength.
Build mass working class socialist/communist parties and link up across Europe to fight the bosses, billionaires and their system.