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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   26472 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 15, 2024

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I'm not 100% sure why, to be honest. Media and politics are panicking and sure enough, it might just be some drama put on to increase voter turnout or just to attract attention. Maybe it's even merely a performance intended to galvanize one's existing supporter base. Maybe it's just a hysterical feedback loop.

Under the assumption that the risk of the AfD winning a state election is real, I'd guess the following:

  1. The CDU has shown a reduced willingness to cooperate with the leftist parties since they went into opposition, and is much less enthusiastic when it comes to anti-right work. It's often said that their current Chairman, Merz, is "sharpening their conservative profile" in order to regain voters lost to the AfD. I'm guessing this also makes the CDU less of a trusted partner to the left. But I lack an inside perspective of how the parties work in the eastern states, so this is just speculation.
  2. The AfD's numbers are higher this time, and it affects several states at once. Even if the other parties band together, they need to do it three times over. And even if it works, they effectively subvert the will of a large part of the electorate, or at least that's how it'll feel to the AfD voters. On the one hand I'm sure that's an attractive prospect to the left, pissing in the nazis' cups, but on the other hand it'll give the AfD a lot to talk about in terms of how this democracy is eroding its legitimacy. It sure did the last time, and this one promises to be a far bigger affair.

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