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"A party of quarrels": expert sees only a footnote in the AfD-Aus at Bremen election

2023-03-22T10:59:54.440Z


After a dispute over the list of candidates: the AfD will not be in the Bremen election. A political scientist classifies who could benefit from it.


After a dispute over the list of candidates: the AfD will not be in the Bremen election.

A political scientist classifies who could benefit from it.

Bremen/Kassel – The AfD Bremen is threatened with exclusion from the 2023 state elections – after internal quarrels.

The electoral office had already made its decision last week and did not approve any of the two lists of candidates submitted by the party.

Complaints about the decision of the electoral office are still possible with the state electoral committee.

But what does that mean for the party?

The political scientist Professor Wolfgang Schroeder, who teaches in Kassel and specializes in the right-wing political spectrum, explains why this kind of thing repeatedly happens to right-wing populists.

Bremen election 2023: AfD is excluded – what does that mean for the party?

With two competing lists of candidates, the AfD Bremen is endangering their participation in the elections.

Is


that stupid?

Professor Wolfgang Schroeder

: This process shows that the AfD is not a “normal” parliamentary force.

It is a party of quarrels, which often cannot bring the diverging interests that exist in every party into a peaceful balance.

On the one hand, we observe cultural struggles within the AfD between the "wing" and the "moderates".

On the other hand, it's also simply about arguments that take place beyond ideological currents, when individuals fight each other to the death.

In the Baden-Württemberg state parliament, such conflicts have already led to a split in the parliamentary group.

This has now been expressed in a particularly pointed way in Bremen.

The dispute culminated in an “emergency” and a “trunk board”.

With competing list proposals, they have undermined the legal basis for participation in state elections.

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In the AfD Bremen, a "rump board" around Sergej Minich (r.) is fighting against an "emergency board" around parliamentarian Heinrich Löhmann (l.).

© Focke Strangmann/dpa

Bremen election: Expert warns of the strengthening of right-wing "alternatives" to the AfD

Who could benefit from an AfD-Aus in the Bremen election?

The AfD is already poorly represented in the Bremen state parliament.

An exclusion from the election would not be a "quake" but a footnote.

In Bremerhaven, however, she can very well compete - and there is the phenomenon that those who prefer such a populist party then look for alternatives.

In Bremen and Bremerhaven, there is now an alternative to the right-wing populists in the form of the Grassroots Democratic Party of Germany, which could become a competitor to the AfD in the state parliament in the medium and long term.

We already have that in Saxony.

There, in addition to the AfD, the Free Saxony have formed, which are far more radical.

Parties that advance into the realm of parliamentarism out of a certain radicalism are then honed a bit by parliamentarism – which in turn offers the sounding board for new radical forces in their own camp.

In Bremen and Bremerhaven, there is now an alternative to the right-wing populists in the form of the Grassroots Democratic Party of Germany.

Professor Wolfgang Schroeder

AfD Bremen: political scientist sees a “high level of anger” in the party at the federal level

Does the AfD argue more often than other parties?

Yes, you can definitely say that if you mean the uncompromising form of the dispute.

The AfD is also a gathering place for people who are quite "robust" with others and show a certain unforgiving attitude towards their environment.

So there is a high degree of dissatisfaction and anger on the one hand.

And on the other hand, the assessment of being able to present the solution yourself and knowing where to go.

An egocentric exaggeration of one's own person and an insufficient ability to consider the interests of others and to be anxious to find a balance - that seems to me to be a hallmark of the AfD.

It's a haven for quarrels and people who have social difficulties.

We had a similar situation in 2019 in the state elections in Saxony.

The AfD was not able to nominate all candidates at a nomination party conference because the individual applicants did not comply with the specifications and thus exceeded the entire time arrangement.

An egocentric exaggeration of one's own personality seems to me to be a trademark of the AfD. 

Professor Wolfgang Schroeder

AfD Bremen: Expert sees “staff disputes at all levels”

Do you see parallels to the dispute on the left?

You have to be careful there.

The personnel quarrels in the AfD are at all levels;

in the case of the Left Party, one has the impression that it is particularly related to the person Sahra Wagenknecht, who within the party enjoys a similar focus to Björn Höcke in the AfD.

Nevertheless, they are two very different parties, also with different ties to our constitution.

From the outside, there are some similarities;

But that also has to do with the fact that the ideological dispute plays an important role in both parties.

In parties that focus on the struggle for the theoretically (!) best order and less on the practical organization of daily living conditions, the emergence of an irreconcilable "battle zone" is more likely.

Wherever the Left Party is in government responsibility, it is a completely “normal” social-democratic party of a more conservative nature, which proceeds in an absolutely pragmatic manner.

The AfD and Die Linke are two very different parties.

Professor Wolfgang Schroeder

Polls before Bremen election 2023: AfD lead only "snapshot"

The AfD currently sees the “Sunday trend” ahead of the Greens.

First of all, this is only the case with the Insa survey, in which the rights are usually rated higher than in the other surveys.

Secondly, it is disturbing that the AfD achieves such high approval ratings at all.

And thirdly, it's also not very worrying because these are snapshots.

And before the traffic light coalition, the AfD was the strongest opposition party.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-03-22

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