A study on political attitudes shows the low level of trust in democracy among many people in East Germany. The AfD in particular can benefit from this.
Skepticism about how democracy works is still particularly pronounced in eastern Germany. This is the conclusion of a new representative study by the Else Frenkel Brunswik Institute at the University of Leipzig on “Authoritarian Dynamics and Dissatisfaction with Democracy”. Accordingly, not even half of the respondents were satisfied with the state of the political system. Two-thirds even thought it pointless to get involved in politics.
On the other hand, there is a longing for the GDR, shared by two-thirds of those surveyed. Around a quarter counted themselves among the losers of the turnaround. “Looking back, the respondents were very satisfied with their life in the GDR,” said co-study leader and social psychologist Oliver Decker.
A “strong party” of “national community”?
The researchers also examined attitudes towards dictatorship support, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and chauvinism – i.e. an extreme form of patriotism or nationalism. These are also comparatively high. Almost 70 percent fully or partially agreed with the statement “Foreigners only come here to take advantage of our welfare state”.
Regional differences become apparent at second glance. For the statement “What Germany needs now is a strong party that embodies the people’s community as a whole” the agreement was between 50 and 53 percent in all countries with the exception of East Berlin. About half of these agreed with the statement completely, the rest only partially. The exception is Saxony-Anhalt: 33.7 percent of all respondents openly supported a strong party from the “Volksgemeinschaft”.
In Thuringia and Saxony, too, some such attitudes are particularly hardened. The researchers speak of a cohesive, right-wing extremist worldview in people where various of these attitudes overlap.
The authors did not want to overestimate the fact that these numbers fluctuate slightly compared to previous studies, some declining and some increasing. According to the study, “not much has changed” in the proportion of those who share elements of the extreme right-wing ideology in recent years. Regardless of whether the AfD and NPD were in parliament or not.
An explanation for the strength of the AfD
The AfD plays a special role in the paper. She could “use this atmosphere for her extreme right-wing politics”. However, the party does not produce these moods itself. In other words, they are also present without the AfD – and are also found in gradations among supporters of other parties. Between 5 and 22 percent of the Greens, Left, SPD, CDU and FDP in the East represented xenophobia or chauvinism.
However, these attitudes predominate among AfD supporters: The researchers measured around 50 percent for chauvinism and just under 60 percent for xenophobia. Accordingly, the AfD also succeeds in attracting more than a third of all people with a closed right-wing extremist worldview. The rest don’t want to vote or chose another party. Overall, the researchers assigned seven percent of those surveyed to this group.
The figures provide an explanation for the strength of the partially right-wing extremist party in the east. At the same time, they emphasize that the spread of such attitudes is not the only reason for the encouragement.
It is the largest study of its kind to date. In addition to the University of Leipzig, a large number of other universities were involved. 3546 respondents were recorded. The survey itself took place in the summer of 2022. At that time, the AfD was not yet at its current poll high.