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Political turmoil in Germany divides entire society
The wrong and non-functioning migration policy is currently leading to heated discussions in Germany. Right ahead of the federal election, this issue is severely dividing society.
Monday, February 3, 2025

Patrick Poppel, expert at the Center for Geostrategic Studies (Belgrade)

People demonstrated against right-wing extremism in many cities over the weekend. In Berlin alone, at least 160,000 people took to the streets. The trigger was the migration debate in the Bundestag initiated by the Union (CDU).

On the occasion of the CDU party conference, more than 140 refugee and social organizations criticized the discussions about stricter migration policy in an appeal to the Christian Democrats. These are currently being pushed forward significantly by the CDU. “Stand by your Christian and democratic values and preserve the rule of law and human rights for the benefit of all people in Germany,” the letter says.

The strength of society lies in diversity, the appeal continues: “Different ideas, original stories, religions, world views and identities enrich us.” The argument goes that refugees from numerous regions of the world have long since become part of our society. Nationwide, tens of thousands of people took to the streets at the weekend against right-wing extremism and to distance themselves from the AFD (Alternative for Germany).

The largest demonstration took place on Sunday in Berlin. The AFD as a whole is currently viewed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (German domestic secret service) as a suspected right-wing extremist case. The state constitutional protection authorities in Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt classify the party there as definitely right-wing extremist.Many people in Germany do not see this definition as objective, but as political.

But other people actually think that this opposition party is extremely right-wing. Under the motto “Colourful instead of brown”, around 1,000 water sports enthusiasts demonstrated in Cologne on Sunday with a total of 350 boats. When the weather was sunny, they lined up one behind the other on the Rhine in front of the skyline with the cathedral. They held up banners with slogans such as “No Racism” and “For Democracy and Diversity”. The unusual rally was organized by the “Water Sports Friends Neptun Cologne”.

This clearly shows how divided society is down to the smallest structures. The Parliamentary Managing Director of the Union in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei, defended the actions of Union Chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz in the Bundestag last week. They fought until the end to ensure that there was a majority in the democratic center. He believes it is necessary to move from talking to taking action, especially after the attack in Magdeburg.

So we see that terrorist attacks and attacks on the population in particular influence the political climate and that now the bourgeois parties in the center also have to react to the problems.

Thorsten Frei pointed out that Chancellor Scholz did not make any suggestions for solving the problems in his government statement. The CDU politician emphasized that it was not enough to put up a "wall" against the AFD and "simply let the fire continue to burn on the other side, where around 20 percent of eligible voters are in Germany."

And that is the will of the SPD and the Greens. The Union, on the other hand, wants to fight the fire on the other side. In his opinion, politicians must answer the question of why one in five Germans is apparently willing to vote for a right-wing extremist party.

Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) called on the democratic parties to moderate the debate about migration policy and how to deal with the AFD. Özdemir warned that if things continued like this, we would end up in Austrian conditions.

Given the current poll numbers, it is questionable whether there will be enough for a coalition of two democratic center parties after the federal election on February 23rd.

Former Chancellor and CDU chairwoman Angela Merkel has now also expressed concerns about the actions of CDU leader Friedrich Merz. The SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich accused the Union of having seriously damaged democracy. “It’s not just the lifeline of democracy that has been damaged,” he said.

All of these statements and political developments clearly show that there is a deep division throughout Germany's political landscape. It is now very likely that the political atmosphere will become even more heated leading up to the election. The question also arises as to how a future government can remove the rifts that have already arisen between German society.

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