Voting Processes - The election outcomes cannot be overlooked or ignored.
A political researcher from Rostock, Wolfgang Muno, sees the AfD's high approval ratings in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern during the European and local elections as a significant alarm bell for democracy. Moreover, the recently-established Wagenknecht party BSW took home many votes. "Both are negative parties that essentially reject everything and have nothing positive to offer," commented Muno to the German Press Agency in Schwerin on Monday.
Despite the high anticipated poll numbers for these two parties prior to the elections, the AfD's impressive victory in the northeast and the BSW's unexpected strong performance came as a surprise to many. This trend was evident across all of Eastern Germany. "It's alarming that more than one-third to half of the population is voting for parties that have a tumultuous relationship with democracy. You need to be extremely frank about this," stressed the professor.
The election outcomes could no longer be sugarcoated or credited to protests or anger. "In this case, a deliberately populist or even a anti-democratic party like the AfD was intentionally chosen," Muno observed. This indicates a growing discontent with democracy. "I'm afraid this represents a fundamental sentiment and not just a temporary phase," said the political scientist. The assumption that democracy could be fortified through enlightenment and political education evidently did not pan out.
In the European and municipal elections on Sunday, the AfD in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern received 28.3% and 25.6% respectively, surpassing the CDU from first place for the first time. The BSW secured 16.4% in the European election, surpassing the SPD and the Left, who have run Schwerin since 2021. In the municipal elections, every other party sustained major losses, with the exception of the AfD and BSW.
