Last summer, the hit song “L’Amour toujours” from 2000 went viral once again, this time in Germany.
The song was remixed with new lyrics containing the phrase, “Auslaender Raus, Deutschland den Deutschen,” or “Foreigners out, Germany for Germans.” It was heard in nightclubs and anti-immigration marches across the country.
The crude lyrics are a window into the climate of Sunday’s election, which took place 10 years after then-chancellor Angela Merkel threw open the doors of Germany, and thereby the whole European Union, to mass immigration.
For millions of Germans, this election was an opportunity to make it clear that they now want those doors slammed shut.
The centre-right bloc led by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which Merkel herself once led, won a plurality of seats in the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament.
For over three years, the once-mighty Social Democratic party (SPD) has overseen a sharp economic decline and an energy price crisis, so German voters punished it by relegating it to third place.
The real story, however, is the ascendancy of the hard-right, nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD). A January survey found that immigration was the top issue for 37 per cent of German voters, followed by those concerned about the economy at 34 per cent.
This was confirmed when the polls closed, as immediate surveys found that immigration was the biggest motivator for those who voted, at 44 per cent, which is up 33 points from 2021. Exit polling data suggested the AfD performed very well among young voters.
Germany’s population currently stands at around 83.5 million, with immigrants accounting for 17.3 per cent of the population in 2021. The country is also home to around 3.5-million refugees, who began arriving at the height of the Syrian Civil War.
AfD has grabbed the issue of immigration like an eagle clutching its prey. It pledged to crack down on asylum applications, withdraw from EU migrant quotas and aggressively pursue “remigration,” or mass deportations. With 68 per cent of Germans wanting fewer refugees, AfD’s package was highly effective, positioning it to become Germany’s largest opposition party.
The CDU also turned sharply against immigration in a bid to ward off AfD’s rise, as did the SPD.
For decades, the European nationalist right was cut off from power. But that has started to change since the COVID-19 pandemic. Economic decline, immigration and its side effects have driven the European hard right into the mainstream in many countries, including Italy, Croatia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and France.
Whether it be petty crime, murder or terrorism, rising German crime rates have been repeatedly linked to the massive surge of migrants, who are over-represented in crime statistics.
Terrorism, specifically, has included barbaric attacks on Christmas markets, which now require heavy security. Added to this are random stabbings and car rammings, with violent crime in Germany reaching a 15-year high in 2023.
Migrants in Europe are at greater risk of poverty, creating a breeding ground for political and religious radicalism. This desperate environment also breeds crime, and poverty reveals the inability of European economies to properly integrate newcomers.
For years, European governments justified mass immigration as both a humanitarian and an economic good, one that would give shelter to the endangered and boost GDP. Yet the promised economic gains of immigration never materialized.
Since 2022, Germany has experienced an economic crisis that some have called the most dire since the end of the Second World War. The entire German economic model of cheap foreign labour, cheap Russian energy and endless automobile exports to China is on the brink.
In an unprecedented move, the iconic German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen recently announced it will be shuttering some of its plants, citing energy expenses as a major reason. This has occurred under the governance of the mainstream parties, with the incumbent SPD being punished with its worst showing in years.
There are many reasons to be worried about the rise of the AfD and to strongly oppose its participation in the German government, including the party’s dovish stance towards Russia and its attitude towards the memory of the Holocaust. A healthy society is certainly not one that votes for such a party.
The CDU, the battered SPD and possibly another weaker centre-left party are now likely to form a tense coalition. But the threat posed by the AfD should not be downplayed: another failure by Germany’s mainstream parties to tackle issues like immigration and the economy will add to its momentum.
The German economic pie is barely growing, while the number of people who want a piece of it grows by the day. It is fuel for a bonfire of stagnation, immigration and societal change. For millions of Germans, voting for AfD was their way of saying “enough is enough.”
National Post