Election gleanings .
- melanieschmoll1
- 1. März
- 5 Min. Lesezeit
So now it is done. The Germans have voted. Well, at least those who received their voting documents in time and were able to send them back in time if they voted by post. I know from my own circle of acquaintances that this was probably not the case for everyone.
Fortunately, voters prevented 7 parties from entering the Bundestag at one point. However, this does not hide the fragmentation in society and politics. One of the headlines this week was: Without the old, Germany would have no democratic center (https://www.spiegel.de/politik/bundestagswahl-2025-ergebnisse-nach-wohnort-alter-thema-a-a6ccb040-2711-4992-b288-3b0e823affd8).
Yes, because the “young” voted either left (extreme) or right (extreme). It seems to me that it is not just the school with its educational mandate that has failed, but above all the parental home and families - because they have the educational mandate.
The term to educate in German erziehen, means to form someone's (especially a child's) mind and character and encourage their development or guide them to behave in a certain way. To educate someone always includes values, behavior, and socialization in the German understanding of the term. And so it is that young people no longer have any party ties and obviously no democratic center.
Another finding of the election: Jewish voters also voted extreme, and to the extreme left. As Joshua Schultheis wrote: “Hold your nose and vote Die Linke: That seemed to be the motto according to which quite a few people ticked their boxes on Sunday. In the weeks leading up to the parliamentary elections, social media showed how many young Jews and those on the left who support Israel struggled with themselves.
On the one hand, they wanted a strong left-wing opposition party that would buck the trend and uphold social issues and dare to talk about redistribution and wealth tax. An opposition party that not only reads the riot act to the AfD in parliament, but also to the centrist parties if they flirt too much with right-wing populism. [...]
On the other hand, the voters were horrified by the foreign policy of the Left Party and the many enemies of Israel in its ranks. No weapons […] for the Jewish state under attack […]: for Jews in particular, including most on the left, this is an impregnable position.
Some of them used one argument to justify voting for the Left nonetheless: As a small force in opposition, the party had no influence on foreign policy anyway. They wanted Die Linke as a corrective, not as a real shaper.
Now, after election day, it is highly questionable whether this calculation has worked out. With a surprising 8.77%, the Left Party is represented in the Bundestag, where it now has a blocking minority together with the AfD. […] In the future, Die Linke will probably have a say in areas where even some of its voters hoped it would have no influence. It should also give pause for thought that the election has strengthened those parts of the Left Party in particular that have, to put it mildly, been the least conspicuous for their commitment to combating anti-Semitism.
For example, a direct mandate in Berlin went to Ferat Koçak, whose Neukölln district association had relied on campaign support from former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - who consistently downplayed the terror of Hamas - and loyally supports a member who was recently expelled from the party and who has never made a secret of his desire to destroy Israel.
The Left Party will very probably not be a reliable force against anti-Semitism in the new Bundestag. Despite all this, was it worth giving the Left Party your vote on Sunday? Some people are probably already having their first doubts. For them, the motto now is: hold your nose until the next election.” (https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/meinung/links-waehler-wolltet-ihr-das-wirklich/).
Murat Keyman commented in a similar vein:
“Germany has voted. And it must now realize that a more diverse society does not automatically mean a more democratic one.
The big loser in this election is the political center. The AfD, an extreme right-wing party in parts, for whose honorary chairman the Nazis were just a “blip in German history”, has become the largest opposition party with over 20 percent. But it is not only the right that is threatening trouble. The Left Party is also celebrating a surprising comeback - one that it itself did not believe would happen. The party is patting itself on the back and feels vindicated in its declaration of war “To the barricades!”.
She also received strong support from immigrant voters. Muslim influencers and social media activists had touted the Left Party as the only electable alternative. Their stance on Israel and the Middle East conflict was decisive for this. As a result, Left Party candidate Ferat Koçak received a whopping 30 percent of the first votes in the Berlin district of Neukölln.
Many saw the vote as an opportunity to punish the other parties for their “raison d'état” policies. And in the aftermath of the election, the success of the Left Party was interpreted as a sign of what is possible if a politician is not a “Zionist propagandist”. Secondary and Israel-related anti-Semitism can be identified as characteristics of the left-wing spectrum, especially since October 7, 2023.
The left has become connectable, also and especially for anti-Semitic convictions within the Muslim community. Parallel societies, which were previously seen as a challenge exclusively in migrant milieus, have been more strongly represented in the Bundestag since Sunday than ever before - in both wings of the House.
The Left in particular, which recently took to the streets for democracy, should not ignore the fact that hatred of Jews is not a good foundation for 'international solidarity'.” (https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/meinung/mit-links-gegen-die-staatsraeson/)
Hate is never a good foundation - no matter what it's about. Or - as I argue in my new book Hatred of Jews-A Failure of Holocaust Education?:
It all comes back to lower irrational human emotions.
Once again, we Germans have fallen for the fallacy that there are no base emotions in the former land of poets and thinkers, that we will resist and not give in to these inhuman emotions and that our supposedly better “mentality” prevents us from hating. Wrong - quite wrong, one must conclude after this election.
However, I do not just want to paint a black picture here. After all, the remaining rest of the democratic center is trying to forge a coalition. What used to be a GroKo - a grand coalition - is now called KleiKo (a small coalition), but at least both sides seem to be aware of the urgency. I see that as a positive in this whole chaos and social misery. We will have to see whether it is enough.
