One in five people in Germany who voted in today's election voted for an openly fascist party that has sought to deny the significance of the holocaust, amongst other troubling things.
It's quite likely there might be a similar result in the U.K. right now, and I see little difference between Farage with his support for the fascists in the USA and the AfD, the German fascist party.
There are three ways of looking at this. One is to live in fear of a situation that can result in so many people voting for fascism.
Another is to lament the utter failure of supposed social democrats to deliver anything of value, giving rise to this situation.
Third, there is the fact to cling on to that eighty per cent did not vote fascist, and fifty per cent did not even vote right wing. Not all is lost, although the situation really does not feel good.
As I keep saying, the job is to work out what to do. I promise, that is what I am working on.
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Indeed, 80% not fascist – a good result. But what in these circumstances is reality?
What we know for sure, most of the fascist parties are pro-Russia. Le-Pens rabble got money from them I have no doubt that the AfD likewise (given the Kremlin narratives they put forward). In fairness to the Russians, they did not invent neoliberalism but most definitely are taking advantage of its fallout = massive dissafection with the current economic situation. So there are a number of elements which need to be addressed, not least the rather pathetic lack of political control over the ECB, which was, in fairness dsesigned by the German Bundesbank which, until the 1980s, was run by 1st generation Nazis. All in all, a truly horrible situation – bolt in Russia’s humiliation in the 1990s by a US + EU combo and you have what you have. Will the usual suspects get a grip? probably not.
Much to agree with
Thank you, Mike.
Let’s not forget how German and American big business facilitated the rise of the far right in 1920s and 1930s Germany and how, now, the CDU and AfD are led by BlackRock and Goldman Sachs alumni. In the case of US firms, that included firms associated with the Bush family, something that briefly flared in one US election campaign when descendants of holocaust victims highlighted the family’s role.
I worked for Germany’s leading bank, or is that basket case, for 5 years and am aware of the bank’s role in that period.
I share your worry
This new government may want nothing to do with the AfD, but it is not good news.
Apologies for posting… yet again. Politico had a pretty good article on AfD, worth a read: https://www.politico.eu/article/german-election-2025-results-alice-weidel-afd-moment
Extract: “The man who advised her on her doctoral dissertation was the economist Peter Oberender, who believes in strict free markets and helped found a party that was a precursor to the AfD.”
As Innes noted in “Late Soviet Britain” the neo-liberal “project failed/is failing because it is utopian (whilst also noting that the SovU failed because it also was a utopian project). “Strict free markets” is an oxymoron & is utopian. The rise of AfD is a reaction to the implementation by various German parties of utopian neo-liberalism (e.g. no political control over central banks). It is truly strange that diff parties all propose political utopian projects ( – strict free markets) that can only fail. Or re-migration – begging the question: who will wipe the bottoms of an increasingly ageing German population? (don’t expect the AdF or indeed the chimps in DeForm to have answers). In fairness, AfD have done a great job grooming a large lump of the German population.
What to do next is simples,
1) universal basic income without precondition up to the wage bracket of £40,000 over this your on silly money
2) appreciation of the diversification of the human race and acceptance that there is differences that not only provide challenges but equally provide the most beautiful things possible.
3) ensure every human has the basic beat light warmth food roof essentials free without precondition
4) provide basic decent eduction without precondition free
5) provide health care free without precondition and that includes sport and exercise for free
6) total rethink on the role of employment, work life balance and the roles that are needed in order to make society function and flourish
7) re inject life back into our arts and culture sector
8) unitedly and unequivocally annihilate the dwp and provide any and all support to the materialistic, mental and wellbeing of disabled community
9) earth and climate first – profit second
10) government is all sacked all parties sacked and only people with a CONFIRMED decade or more of experience in field allowed in and even then it needs to be a conglomerate decides on making process that is based on fact and not on political up man ship.
There done made a dent in the issue simples. We have the means, and resources. Yet it makes me fume we don’t have the willing cost it will cost the poor dear rich and wealthy on there pedestals, impact the high and mighty businesses and government would have to be nice the the people instead of ruling with cruelty, indignity and inhumanity
Oh and Richard for minister of economic sense please.
Sorry, but there is not an iota of a chance of this happening.
I have to deal in the possible.
Thank you!
Yes, the BBC are suggesting the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is expected to become the second biggest force in the country, with a record 20%, which is higher than the 18.3% gained by the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) in the election of September 1930, in the financial crisis 1929-30.
A good reason to take stock!
Indeed…….
Hopefully, the 20% will be the upper margin which can be reached.
Don’t underestimate the influence of social media. Here’s an informative thread from the ‘Vatnik Soup’ guy about how everyone’s least favourite fascist South African billionaire is gaming the system by manipulating the twitter algorithms:
https://x.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1891838354523558290
Musk is actively pumping misinformation into the twittersphere (hundreds of posts a day at the moment) which is being pushed by the bot farms and it is being made sure that this stuff is pumped into the timelines of those who might normally be regular ‘conservatives’, albeit towards the right of usual political discourse. No wonder that support for the far right is surging because many of them believe any sort of nonsense you can make up, even if it is easily proved to be utter nonsense, and it’s east for people to be radicalised when everyone they ‘know’ is pushing the same message.
Elmo’s most recent hints are that he is going to ‘fix’ the community notes system as well, because many of those counter the unmitigated bullshit which he so often posts. Obviously, the end game of the neoliberal project will be having a great impact on the rising support for these far right ‘populist’ parties as well, but, unless Musk disappears into a ketamine-induced breakdown, it’s something we’re going to need to discover a way to overcome, even in the unlikely event that governments actually do something to improve the lot of the man on the street.
Thank you.
The Austrian School emerged from the wreckage of the Habsburg empire. Some of the PayPal Mafia (Musk, Thiel and Sacks) emerged from apartheid South Africa.
“…Third, there is the fact to cling on to that eighty per cent did not vote fascist, and fifty per cent did not even vote right wing. Not all is lost, although the situation really does not feel good…”
Are you implying all on the right are Fascist and all on the left (obviously are Marxist/ communis)?
What a silly comment.
There are very, very few Marxists and communists (and they are far from the same).
But the AfD is fascist, and no one pretends otherwise. Or do you?
People who have to bring up the extreme Left – when it has never ruled in the West as far as I can see – are they not the worst nitpickers of all Richard?
Sometimes I just have to shake my head……………………….
From the Guardian: “The AfD, buoyed by anger about immigration, violent crime and high energy costs, got about 21% of the vote – finishing second ”
High energy costs. Germany one of the fanatical supporters of marginal pricing for electricity despite the reality that north of 50% of the elec (rises each year) comes from renewables which for the most part are much cheaper than gas or coal. I have spoken directly & at length (2 hours) to the former head of the German energy regulator (Frau Annegret Groebel) who was also the President of CEER which covers all Euro energy regulators. The discussion centered around marginal pricing and its inability to price energy at the cost of production. It was like talking to a religious fanatic (oddly the Jehova Witnesses were at the door the other day), no amount of empirical data could change her mind (we had plenty). It was very sad and very depressing. The German establishment have only itself to blame for the rise of the AfD – they are just a vessel for assorted sections of society to express their unhappiness. However, we were proved right in late 2021 when gas priced rocketed, ditto elec prices andthe best Groebel had to offer (in an e-mail exchange) was that it was all under control. Pathetic.
Thanks Mike
Worrying….
And time for change
Further to Mike’s post about Peter Oberender, one wonders what role Ottmar Issing had or even will have. The hard man of ordoliberalismus joined Goldman Sachs after his stint at the ECB. He would often pipe up about the eurozone crisis and need for permanent austerity without declaring who he worked for and that firm having positions on the crisis and firms at risk.
@ Mike: Engel & Volkers has opened in Mauritius. Some Germans are moving residence and even assets down there.
“Engel & Volkers has opened in Mauritius. Some Germans are moving residence and even assets down there. ”
This does not surprise me. Some sharp minds (based there) have found work arounds in terms of taxation (& its non-payment). Quite clever really.
Happy to share the details privately.
I see the results in Germany as quite hopeful. The SPD and Greens were bound to get a bit of a kicking, because the general trend across the world recently has been any and all incumbents losing – but the Conservatives didn’t gain much in view of this, and there’s nothing to suggest that their vote isn’t in long term decline – their French equivalents, Les Republicains, have been pretty much eaten already by the far right or by other centrists, just as MAGA has eaten the US Republicans, and Reform, or the LibDems, seem to be eating the UK Tories.
But in all these trends what stands out to me is voters moving from the political centre – rejecting the status quo – to both extremes – not just the right – and in Germany as in France and the UK (where the Greens and other further left candidates have actually been the biggest % gainers) the left is still out-polling the right (Greens+Left+BSW over 25%, AfD less than 21%).
It’s all to play for in all these places – but very difficult tactically – eg. in terms of entering a coalition in Germany.
Further to Mike’s comment about Weidel’s doctorate, is there any suggestion of plagiarism? That seems to be a thing in Germany.
The turnout was a record 84%.
Compare that to:
The UK general election, 59.4%.
The US Presidential election, 63.9%.
The fascists got 20% of the vote, but of the total electorate, including non-voters, it is 16.8%.
The vote is widely split, and thanks to PR, they are going to have to work together. Fact is, though, I don’t think any of the other parties want to, or will, accommodate the fascists. No one wants to work with them.
I’m tempted to say that the fascists are more likely to do well the lower the turnout. Suppressing voter turnout is something that they are usually happy with. Make people think that things are hopeless and that it is pointless to vote as it changes nothing. The populists often do well against that backdrop. It is also easier for them in first past the post systems like the UK and USA. In the US, MAGA have hijacked the Republican Party. In the UK, the Tories and Reform, are fighting over the same limited extreme vote. The danger is, they eventually get together, and do a “Trump”. Right now they are split, and that’s a good thing. Doesn’t alter the fact that progressives need to wake up to Neoliberalism, and offer an alternative.
Merz’s stated plan for the German economy is not to lift the debt brake and to raise the money to invest by cutting taxes and cutting welfare. All the usual failed neoliberal economic policies etc. Interestingly, even if the new CDU/SPD coalition did want to get the debt brake lifted a 2/3rds majority is required to change the constitution and, even including the Greens vote, the sums don’t work. They would need the votes either of Der Linke or the AfD!
Die Linke might join in.
That’s the current thinking here