Liberals in Japan have long regarded Germany as an exemplary country that has sincerely reflected on its past war crimes. This is because our country has done little of that and has been at loggerheads with neighboring Asian countries.
However, after reading a recent article in the Mainichi Shimbun, I have become concerned about one thing.
The concern is the three state legislative elections scheduled for this fall in the former East German region.
According to the Mainichi Shimbun, the exclusionist right-wing party "Alternative for Germany (AfD)" is increasing its presence in Germany: In mid-December, its candidate won the mayoral election for the first time, and in the fall of this year it could become the leading party in the three state elections scheduled for the former East German region. Why is right-wing party gaining more support?
In Pirna, eastern Saxony, a mayoral election was held on the 17th, with a AfD candidate receiving 38.5% of the votes, who was elected with a higher margin than the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) candidate (31.4%).
The AfD has won a series of elections of the heads of local governments since the middle of last year, with its candidate winning the election for county mayor in the eastern state of Thuringia in June and the election for town mayor in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt in July.
AfD was formed in 2013. Originally, the party was anti-euro and other economic policies, but since the European refugee crisis of 2015, it has taken a more chauvinistic stance, putting anti-immigrant and refugee policies front and center. It has been expanding its support mainly in the former East Germany, where income levels are lower than in the former West Germany.
Recently, the AfD's momentum has been spreading to the national level, driven by growing criticism of the Scholz coalition government in the wake of the rapid increase in refugees and inflation.
In the former West German region, the party became the second largest party in the October state election in Hesse and the third largest party in Bavaria. According to a December poll by German public broadcaster ARD, the AfD's approval rating of 21% was second only to the Christian Democratic and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU)'s 32%. It was well ahead of Chancellor Scholz's Social Democrats (14%).
This fall, there will be state elections in the three former East German states of Thuringia, where the AfD's candidate became a county mayor, Saxony, where the party's candidate became a mayor, and Brandenburg, and the AfD is widely expected to become the number one party.
Since the end of World War II, right-wing political parties have been avoided by German voters because they remind them of the Nazis, but the growth of the AfD can be seen as a sign of change. Behind the growth of the AfD, the party has been developing a clever electoral strategy with an eye to penetrating into rural areas.
After Italy, an exclusionist far-right party came to power in the Netherlands in an election. In Argentina, a man like Trump won the election. This year there is a presidential election in the United States. Trump may be re-elected. An economist Robert Reich says it is the last chance for the US to defend American democracy.
We are not in a position to say anything about other countries, though, since Japan has been mostly a one-party dictatorship run by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
So I hope that something terrible will not happen in Germany. Good luck!