Largest party by electoral district in the German federal election
Largest party by electoral district in the German federal election
It looks dramatic, but afaik the old GDR states have much lower pop and density. Unless germany starts some funny business with electors and whatnot, i daresay this is not that bad of a result.
It is so striking where AfD is popular thought.
A long time ago I visited one of my parents' friends in East Germany with them, and I said something about how it was good that Germany reunified after the wall fell.
My parent's friend said, people here don't think it was a good thing. People here felt like they lost the war.
I never realized that was a thing.
Interesting, indeed. Maybe it's a form of nostalgia? We still have plenty of people missing the comunists in my country, usually folk that had it better during the regime. But I never heard "we felt like we lost the war".
On top of that, East Germany didn't get the investment they were promised after unification. I don't think it is a coincidence that the people who didn't live under Neoliberalism 40 years ago are rejecting it today.
When you grow up in west Germany, you basically never realize that the GDR was basically annexed by west Germany.
The majority of people in the GDR actually didn't want to turn capitalist, but they rather wanted another, more liberal form of socialism. Also, the Treuhand basically destroyed the east German industry which was then bought up by the West.
So, actually the "finally reunited" narrative is the one that's overly romantic, not (only) nostalgia for the GDR.
You caneven see the big University cities in Germany: cologne, Münster, Aachen.
Please note that in Germany you get 2 votes in the federal election. 1st is for a candidate to directly represent your district, 2nd is for a party nation wide. The map only shows the election result for the 2nd vote.
Here's another map to show the party affiliation of winners of the 1st vote:
Colors are the same, except blue. Blue represents CSU, essentially the Bavarian version of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union).
For anyone interested in psephology or electoral systems, the system Germany uses is called Mixed-Member Proportional. It mixes the benefits of FPTP (having a local member who is your local area's most liked candidate) with proportional systems (having the overall Bundestag proportionally representing the will of the people).
Thanks for the new word, I like it!
Sad to see 1/3 of german voted for nazi in both local and federal vote.
20% is 1/5. It is still too much but not the end. 80% did not vote for them. And the left go stronger too and keeps growing. This is the beginn of the fight, not the end.
It's funny to see Berlin, a Linke haven, lost in a huge sea of nazis.
“Extremes” both sides, ie. the Nazis and the Left party, are more popular in the east, no doubt because it is poorer, so people are less satisfied with the status quo.
Können wir bitte die Mauer wieder aufbauen?
Um jede Großstadt, die nicht schwarz oder blau ist?
I’m shocked AFD is eastern
I'm not. Populism thrives when people are dissatisfied and angry. East Germany is economically not as strong as the west, despite decades of reunion.
As a mexican... U right and u right
Sounds like it’s following in America’s footsteps, where rural and rust belt regions were kinda left behind by the federal government. The south is more complex but similar.
Many East Germans long for the DDR. It’s not surprising they vote for a party that wants to undermine democracy.
Soviet brain damage lingers on.
I read a long time ago that the divide was quire real in germany, the esteners had bad education (thank you Soviet Union) and were generally way poorer than the rich west germans, which lead to all kind of problems and the east germans felt like slave workers for the rich BMW drivers.
I don't know how much that played a role in the election but I sure think it's a breeding ground for a populistic party ...
Unfortunately capitalism completely exploited the remains of the DDR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treuhandanstalt
"The planet is fine - the people are fucked." George Carlin
Downvote me more please.
You can't display a map like this on map enthusiasts that gives a false representation of the election based on land area instead of population density and not be called out on it. It's a shit way to represent data and sows more discord than gives the proper story of what happened
I think the Elsson here is that east Germany is still very much a Russian subject tbh
So, will the German Nazis use the same playbook as the American ones and claim that the election was rigged?
Unlikely, they're happy with their result.
It's however possible that the conservatives will run the Austrian playbook. Talks with the social democrats fail, "we have a responsibility to Germany to form a government", then make a coalition with the AfD (Nazis).
Back to your original question: the BSW will likely contest the elections, as they have missed the 5% threshold by only ~14k votes and there are evident irregularities. For example, many Germans living abroad, for example those living in the US, had almost no chance to cast their vote.
Talks with the social democrats fail, "we have a responsibility to Germany to form a government", then make a coalition with the AfD (Nazis).
That feels familiar somehow.
There’s the 1/5 AfD and 1/4 Union. Maybe the westies start to take the socio economic discrepancies between them and their eastern counterparts serious.
Iron curtain still alive.
Can any Germans tell me what the deal is with the Left? It looks like the only seats they're winning are in areas you'd think of as AfD areas. Is it just a matter of the poorer more overlooked areas becoming polarised? Or are the German Left kinda tankish?
I don't see what you mean. The Left party's tankie elements split off into the BSW a couple of years back, and the only seats the party picked up are in major urban centres that you'd usually expect to skew left. The reason most of them are in the East is probably historical.
I don’t see what you mean
What I mean is that they're in Leipzig and East Berlin, not Hamburg or Frankfurt or Munich, or even West Berlin. So I was wondering why it would be that they only seem to be having success in former East Germany, which is very similar to AfD. I was wondering if any Germans had an understanding of why that might be, and perhaps if there are lessons that leftist parties elsewhere could take from that.
Not a German, but I'll try to answer:
The Left = Die Linke = commies, that have in the past been supportive of authoritarians like Chavez, Maduro, Putin, ... So kinda tankies yes.
Spd = social democratic party of Germany. The actual moderate left party. Many consider them to have moved too much to the right economically, which has opened room for Die Linke to grow. Especially Schröder was a disaster when he was chancellor around 25 years ago (+ afterwards as well when he became a stooge for Putin). The exiting chancellor & leader of exiting coalition government is also from SPD. Apart from their ridiculous levels of support for Israel, I can't think of any stand out bad things that they did. An actual German will have to fill us in on that.
Based Aachen! 💚
That’s the sound of the Royal Air Force preparing for Round 3. And Dresden property prices plummeting.
I don't think the UK or the USA will intervene this time.
Think again. It will just be on the wrong side.
What the fuck kind of comment is this?
Maybe you don’t have the reich sense of humour for history-based mirth. Nothing to lose your Messerschmitt over.
Too soon?
I see the land votes in Germany too
Nope. MMP.