Germany:
The Rise of the Far Right

Mar 3, 2025

The following is translated from the February 28, 2025, issue, #2952 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in France.

With 28.6% of the vote, the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union bloc led by very right-wing millionaire Friedrich Merz came out on top in the German elections. Merz’s bloc will lead the next government coalition, even though this vote is almost the lowest in the bloc’s history.

The vote is above all a punishment inflicted by voters on the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)/Green/Liberal coalition, which has managed to make itself widely hated in three years of a falling standard of living. The SPD led by former chancellor Olaf Scholz plummeted to 16.4%, the lowest vote in its history.

The most striking thing in this election is the vigorous rise of the far right. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party took second place nationally. AfD rose to 20.8%—it doubled its vote in just three years. Voter turnout was very high, six percent higher than previously. Many of the new votes were for AfD candidates.

AfD’s rise is cause for concern, since the party continues its rightward march. AfD is even stronger in the former East Germany than in the west. In the east it won around 30%. It won in almost all the towns with the exception of a few cities such as Berlin.

Among the reasons for this rise is anger against the policies of the Social Democrats and the Greens in government. Voters hold them responsible for the sharp economic decline over the past three years since the start of the war in Ukraine. In the fall of 2024, announcements of mass layoffs flew like buckshot from automotive, chemical and steel corporations. Company after company closed, and subcontractors slashed jobs. Poverty is spreading visibly. Distress is mounting.

During the election campaign, all government parties launched into a bidding war against migrants. This was both a way to align themselves with the AfD in an attempt to raid its votes, and a way to divert attention away from all the everyday difficulties working people have. A series of violent attacks further soured the mood. They did not hesitate to draw a link between crime and immigration. Then the Trump administration weighed in, giving strong support to AfD leader Alice Weidel. U.S. vice president J.D. Vance and Elon Musk repeatedly called for a vote for AfD.

However, on the other side of the political spectrum, so-called radical left party Die Linke (The Left) made strong progress. Its vote rose from less than five percent to 8.8%. This is all the more striking since some people saw Die Linke as on life support after longtime official Sahra Wagenknecht split out her faction in 2024. She created the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), an anti-immigrant, so-called left-wing party that criticizes Die Linke for acceptance of immigrants, claiming that immigration “disserves German workers.” BSW got 4.97%, meaning it almost got into the national legislature. Die Linke’s near nine percent means that several million voters, including a quarter of young voters, chose to say no to the major parties’ policies of austerity, militarization, and the hunting down of migrants.

In January, Merz appealed for help from AfD legislators to support a bill restricting immigration and family reunification. This caused a legislative uproar, and his bill was rejected. There were huge demonstrations across the country. Hundreds of thousands of people marched against the danger of the extreme right and criticized Merz for unleashing prejudice.

Of course, protests are not enough to change things or push back the extreme right—as this election shows. For the situation of working people to stop deteriorating, workers will have to attack the employers on their own turf, the economy, and resume strikes and mobilizations by the whole working class.