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Attack from the right in Bremen election 2023: Citizens in anger dispute voters with AfD

2023-05-14T17:58:08.250Z

Highlights: Citizens in Anger (BIW) could enter the parliament for the first time on Sunday in Bremen. BIW is attracting potential voters who cannot vote for the AfD. But experts warn against the party, which mainly collected AfD votes. More than 400,000 eligible voters in B Remen and Bremerhaven are called upon to cast their ballots in the 2023 state election.. From the radical splinter party to the parliamentary group: The citizens in anger was able to multiply their result in the BRemen election - thanks to the Afd.



From the radical splinter party to the parliamentary group: The citizens in anger was able to multiply their result in the Bremen election - thanks to the AfD. What's behind it?

Update from May 14, 2023, 18:59 p.m.: Record result for the right-wing populists in the Bremen election: According to the first forecast and projection for the state election in Bremen, the citizens in anger won a total of 10.5 percent of the votes. This leap of faith will now be "worked off" in the coming years, said top candidate Jan Timke in a first reaction on ARD. At the same time, he thanked his financiers from the "Alliance Germany" and announced that he wanted to continue the common path nationwide. But experts warn against the party, which mainly collected the AfD votes.

Bremen election 2023: Citizens in anger get a record result

First reported on May 11, 2023, 18:43 p.m.: Bremen - New formation on the right fringe in Bremen: The AfD is not allowed in the 2023 state election. A small splinter party could now benefit from this: the Citizens in Anger (BIW). In the upcoming Bremen elections next Sunday (14 May), the voters' association wants to fish out the votes of the AfD sympathizers and thus achieve parliamentary strength for the first time. But experts warn against the new alternative. So what exactly is behind the party, which is currently soaring in the polls?

Party:Citizens in anger
Foundation:March 2004
Members:around 100
Top candidates in the Bremen election:Jan Timke and Piet Leidreiter

Bremen election 2023: Experts locate citizens in anger on the right in the party spectrum

A few days before the 2023 Bremen election, the emeritus party researcher Lothar Probst has firmly positioned the Citizens in Anger party in the right-wing spectrum. "The name not only sounds radical, BIW is also radical from the right," the political scientist told the Berliner Morgenpost. The party is on the right-wing edge of the democratic constitutional arc and, as a right-wing conservative party, likes to use right-wing populist rhetoric again and again. In this respect, the citizens are in anger "somewhere between the more bourgeois-oriented and the right-wing extremist wing within the AfD," Probst clarified.

On his posters for the Bremen election, Piet Leidreiter, top candidate of the Citizens in Anger (BIW), rails against transport policy. © Friedemann Kohler/Sina Schuldt/dpa

On Sunday (14 May), more than 400,000 eligible voters in Bremen and Bremerhaven are called upon to cast their ballots in the state election. In 2019, the party had only made it to 2.4 percent. Nevertheless, it has been represented in the Bremen parliament since 2007 - thanks to a special feature in the electoral law. It was enough for the former federal police officer Jan Timke to win more than five percent of the vote in the Bremerhaven constituency. In 2023, the party co-founder will again run as a top candidate. But also in Bremen, the party friends, who are represented there by top candidate Piet Leidreiter, hope for a good result far beyond the five percent hurdle.

Citizens in anger: Party is experiencing an upswing in the polls ahead of the 2023 Bremen election – thanks to the AfD

In the polls for the Bremen election, the citizens in anger recently ranged between seven and eight percent. The SPD with Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte is far in the lead. But the BIW is currently attracting potential voters who cannot vote for the AfD. Because the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany had quarreled in the run-up to the election and presented various electoral lists, which is why the AfD was not admitted to this state election by the courts in the end. This gap is now filled by the BIW, which could enter the parliament for the first time on Sunday evening in parliamentary group strength.

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"We expect at least eight percent of the votes for the electoral area of Bremen and twelve percent of the votes for the electoral area of Bremerhaven, the home state of BiW," top candidate Timke recently told the dpa news agency. Certainly, the BiW will attract some "moderate voters of the bourgeois spectrum" who used to vote for the AfD, the party founder continued. From the extremism of the AfD, one dissociates: "Citizens in anger are a bourgeois-conservative voter association." He also counted on "disappointed CDU voters who have lost a political home with the shift to the left of the Union."

Transport and internal security: What goals the citizens are pursuing in anger in Bremen

In the election campaign, the party is campaigning primarily on the issues of transport and internal security. "Our election campaign issues are geared towards: Where are people angry?" said Bremen candidate Piet Leidreiter of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), who was once federal treasurer of the AfD and, together with Bernd Lucke, resigned from the party in protest before the strengthening of the right wing of the AfD around Björn Höcke in the east. The fact that motorists in 30 km/h zones would be overtaken on the left by trams and on the right by e-bikes is an absolute absurdity, the BIW politician continued. This transport policy is purely based on green ideology.

Conservative or right-wing? Post on Facebook and posters deviate from the election program

Leidreiter describes himself as "conservative in values" and "economically liberal". The Federal Agency for Civic Education comes to a similar conclusion after analyzing the election program. However, the party also uses racist tones, for example on its Facebook page: If there are migrants as suspects in a crime in the country, this is highlighted. Especially in the area of internal security and in the fight against crime, this is noticeable again and again, the dpa quoted from an analysis by the University of Bremen. "Deport stabbers consistently" is one of the slogans on the posters in the election campaign.

Against this background, Heiko Werner's alleged connection to the right-wing extremist milieu also caused a stir. The politician was supposed to run in the Bremen election in 18th place on the list for the citizens in anger. But after pictures surfaced showing him participating in right-wing demonstrations in Lower Saxony and at a solidarity march for a convicted Holocaust denier, Werner resigned, as the Bremen news magazine buten und binnen reported on its homepage.

After Bremen's state elections: BIW wants to merge with Alliance Germany

The citizens in anger are financially supported by the small party "Alliance Germany". For example, the right-wing organization is pumping a six-figure sum into the election campaign, as party founder Timke announced at the beginning of the year. After the election, both forces want to merge. The citizens in anger could thus "expand the political sphere of activity for our members beyond the borders of the state of Bremen," Timke recently rejoiced, according to the dpa.

Party researcher Probst is also observing this development. The deal was not a disinterested move for the "alliance Germany," he said in the Berliner Morgenpost. By moving into the Bremen guarantee, this group could also make a name for itself in federal politics and continue to become a catch-all for disappointed AfD voters. (jkf)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-05-14

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