I'm an American. Germans, please don't do to yourselves what we did. Keep AfD as far from power as possible.
this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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The AfD will likely get about 20% (I haze it, but its the reality we live in), but what is also great is, that our leftist party will get about 8%. They won't be in the government, but they for sure will annoy the hell out of them. They will also pressure the more left leaning parties to not do everything our conservatives want to do. They also promised that they want to push to forwards to the so called "Mietendeckel" (rent lid) to end the raising of rent prices which means more stability for about 46% of people. I am optimistic, that they can do this. They have completely rearranged themselves and skyrocketed from about 2.5% a few months ago to now 8% in the polls. We didnt have so many members in the left party in 15 years. The left party has also been responsible for the crarion of the minimum wage in Germany without being part of the government.
Even tho that the government will be ass, I hope for our left party do actually change something. Even tho we aren't part of the government we already won this election.
I would, but it's 16 hours early.
Do I have any hope for a progressive government? Do I have hope that anyone but Merz becomes chancellor?
No, too many old men in this country for that.
But damn it, I have 1 vote to cast and cast it I will, giving it 100% to a party I tolerate. Not voting is voting for the end result, and the AFD doesn't deserve 1% of my vote, let alone what percentage they end up at.
Actually you have two votes
Unless I vote for a winning independent local candidate, then my second vote is annulled.
But this isn't about the exact mechanism of German elections. I say colloquially I have 1 vote to cast/2 crosses to set.
Other way around, if an independent wins then second votes are annulled. If a party candidate wins they're put on the top of the list of people from that party who'll get into parliament when percentages are turned into seats.
I think it's important nowadays to have faith in your government and democracy. You definitely should vote and you can be proud to help put your country into a direction you feel is best. This post seems to convey the message that you should vote to save democracy. This fear of the end of democracy might just end up increasing the influence of extreme political parties. In the US election both parties warned it will be the last vote.
German polls seem to indicate that CDU/CSU will be the strongest party and they will most likely not go into coalition with AfD, so the AfDs influence will not be much but they will probably get a lot of votes anyways. And even though I do not like the idea of a chancellor Merz due to him being very polarizing, I think Germany got this.
Don't panic C:
Should Americans have faith in their government and democracy?
The American system of democracy is fundamentally flawed and has been even before the Republican success in the election. In Germany, there are a variety of parties to vote for that vary across the political spectrum- there is a multi-party system, the American democracy is a decision between right and alt-right, a heavily skewed two party system. I see your point, but this is a false equivalency and a bad analogy
What analogy?
The comment I replied to mentioned USA.
On a comment not about the USA. So why would you bring it up, if not to analogise Germany and the US? This post had nothing to do with the USA and by doing so you are engaging in whataboutisms.