parties
Sociologist: “AfD’s path to success” has been stopped
“Many of those who wanted to vote for the AfD in protest are now changing their minds,” says Ortwin Renn. photo
© Daniel Karmann/dpa
From the perspective of sociologist Renn, the wave of protests against right-wing extremism that has been going on for weeks is having an impact – with consequences for the AfD?
After the wave of protests in Germany following the meeting of radical right-wingers, the sociologist Ortwin Renn no longer expects growing support for them in the future AfD. “From the conservative to the left-wing spectrum, many people have gathered at demonstrations. This signal will have an impact,” said the former director at the Institute for Transformative Sustainability Research (IASS) in Potsdam to the German Press Agency. “The AfD’s path to success has been stopped.”
He no longer expects further growth for the party, but rather a trend reversal, as losses for the AfD have shown in recent surveys at the federal level. “Many of those who wanted to vote for the AfD in protest are now changing their minds,” said Renn. The democratic parties now have the chance to use this movement to their advantage and get more citizens on their side again. Renn also advises the traffic light coalition to advocate a humane migration policy in contrast to the AfD and to show what can actually be legally implemented.
According to polls in January – before the meeting of right-wing radicals in Potsdam caused waves – the AfD would be the strongest force in the state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg this year.
The wave of protests in Germany was triggered by a report by the media company “Correctiv” about a month ago about a meeting of radical right-wingers on November 25th in Potsdam. AfD politicians as well as individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Values Union also took part. The former head of the Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, spoke about “remigration” at the meeting in Potsdam. When right-wing extremists use this term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country, even under duress.