Mainstream politicians express alarm while lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt welcomes congratulations from Elon Musk

Mainstream politicians around Europe have expressed alarm after the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) swept to a historic state election victory in Germany, while nationalist figures cheered the result as a mandate for change.

While falling just short of an absolute majority, the AfD surged into first place in the Saxony-Anhalt state election on Sunday, exit polls ⁠showed, putting the far right within reach ​of power at ‌the state level for ‌the first time since the second world war.

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[–] 123 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (87 children)

Now watch as "liberals" continue to do nothing to stop the fascist propaganda machines causing the spread of the mental illness, because they are bankrolled by the fascists in the corporate economic elite.

They'll also continue sowing the seeds of fascism by colluding with the elite to extract wealth from the population. Buckle up. All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.

The Weimar Republic did the same god damn thing.

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  • [–] 65 points 4 weeks ago (64 children)

    As usual, the conservatives are given a pass and then liberals assigned all the blame.

    This place is absolute fucking joke.

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  • [–] 51 points 4 weeks ago (12 children)

    No they aren't. The liberals and conservatives are both being blamed because they are both part of the problem. 2 sides of the same coin.

    Liberals are being assigned blame because they are worthy of blame.

    Conservatives know they are to blame, telling them that does nothing. Liberals think they are helping the working class and at the very least are discomforted when confronted with the reality of their actions (sometimes).

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  • [–] 6 points 4 weeks ago (11 children)

    We don't have liberals or a two party system or whatever you have in the US.

    This dumb Propaganda shit on lemmy that the left is to blame for the fascism that people voted for really bores me by now.

    None of this is the lefts fault.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 weeks ago* (4 children)

    In the US, the neoliberals have held power over the Democrat party since Ronald Reagan was president in the 1980s. Liberal is shorthand for neoliberal and are considered left here. They are very much to blame for the current state of the US. They offshored jobs, busted unions, weakened education, and cut welfare programs to benefit the elites just like the conservatives have.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    Surely liberal isn’t short for neoliberal.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    But you also don't have any left at all, which doesn't help.

    Even fucking bsw has a point when calling die linke just another socdem party. And neither of these party is even doing well in the urns.

    From a French PoV, German politics are really cooked. Overton window is more right wing than us, and the votes are also more concentrated to the right.

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  • [–] 16 points 4 weeks ago (8 children)

    There may be a gap here in the definition of "liberal". Liberalism is a political philosophy that also encompasses most traditional conservatives. It is different from the colloquial usage. It's loosely defined as the belief in individual freedoms, including the right to private property. It is inherently capitalist and therefore socialists, communists and anarchists generally do not consider them to be of the left.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 weeks ago* (2 children)

    If you split yourself off the "left in the widest sense" you have 5 percent of the votes and you are essentially meaningless. Stuck to your values but meaningless.

    The left does not need more splitting while the right manages to rally behind one or two people.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 weeks ago

    As I say, liberals believe in capitalism by definition. The impact of your vote once every few years in an election under this system pales in comparison to the influence that the owner class have due to their wealth and power. This is fundamental. This is why you get all the anti-liberal sentiment from anti-capitalists.

    Furthermore you talk about convincing some percentage of voters in order to change the system. The early turnout figure for this election is 54% and that's considered high... What of the non voters?

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  • [–] 9 points 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    It's their go to.

    Like yeah, milquetoast policies ultimately lead us here but they have more fury for the people doing moderately OK but ultimately unsatisfactory things than the people actually going hog wild, robbing everyone blind, instituting fascism, etc.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 weeks ago (26 children)

    Sometimes I think it must be a psyops by the billionaires to divide and demoralize the left. Then I remember some people are just so dumb.

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  • [–] 17 points 4 weeks ago (5 children)

    Ppl vote them because other (big) parties dont address their problems. Also % thresholds for democratic participation keeps smaller parties with reasonable programmes away from the table. Wasnt too long ago EU intruduced this. So this is the consequence of continous political failure. I'd also argue voters are aware they get robbed by politicians accepting bribes direct or indirect. And they vote any party (falsely here, see tesla feat) promising to crack down on the old political class. Trump did the same (but didnt follow through obv).

    People are desperate.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago*

    Lot of you loser have been chomping at the bit to point the finger back at other, Germany had one state flip not the nation as a whole, and not the eu as a whole either, no in any way the same as americas failure at all.

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