Yeni Komünizm
- Early elections in Germany resulted in the victory of right-wing and fascist parties. The Christian Union parties’ coalition (CDU/CSU) became the leading party. But the real winner of the election was the fascist AfD (Alternative for Germany), which increased its votes by over 10% and came in second with 20% of the votes. The sum of the votes of the two parties reveals that society is in favour of right-wing fascist parties. The traffic light coalition parties, which had to go to early elections, faced with a major defeat. The Social Democratic Party (SPD), the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, only managed to become the third party with the lowest share of the vote in its history, losing nearly 10 per cent. The other coalition partner, the Greens, became the fourth-largest party, while the Liberal Party (FDP) failed to enter parliament as it fell below the 5% electoral threshold. The Left Party, gaining support from young voters opposing the rise of the AfD and a potential coalition with the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), saw an increase in its votes, reaching nearly 9%. The BSW party of Sara Wagenknecht, who broke away from the Left Party (die Linke) and founded a party under her own name, failed to pass the threshold. Since the “democracy protection wall” against parties forming a coalition with the AfD has been shaken considerably in the pre-election debates, the discussions about the possibility of the CDU forming a coalition with the fascist AfD will intensify even further. However, it is also questionable whether a coalition government that excludes the AfD will last very long, given that fascism is on the rise in all over the world and the shift to the right in Germany is reminiscent of the 1930s.
- The elections, with the highest voter turnout since the 1990s, reflected a societal shift to the right wing. Not only did the fascist party win its biggest victory since the Second Imperialist War, it began to define the parameters of politics. The Social Democrats and the Greens, portraying themselves as “democrats” and “guardians of the European Union’s liberal values,” have increasingly escalated their anti-immigrant stance and warmongering rhetoric, to the point where their positions no longer differ significantly from the fascist party’s program. Even the Left Party, except in certain localities, could not take a clear stance against the genocide in Palestine and the deportation of migrants.
- Last year, the revelation of the meeting between AfD representatives and the bourgeois wing regarding their plan to deport migrants sparked mass anti-AfD protests across the country. Also, before the elections, thousands of people took to the streets in response to the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) signaling the possibility of a coalition with the fascist AfD, protesting the dismantling of the protective barrier against the AfD. However, the opposition to the AfD that was raised in these protests deepened the serious confusion about how exactly to oppose fascism and with what demands. The people who took to the streets in defense of their democracies were, in fact, not opposed to the deportation of migrants within the framework of bourgeois democracy. In many cities, anti-AfD protest committees, which openly distanced themselves from solidarity actions for Palestine, failed to move beyond fascist parameters by labeling the stance against the genocide in Palestine and the migrants coming from the Middle East—whom the AfD primarily targets—as anti-Semitic. Democracy actions that remind us of the republic actions in Turkey could not and cannot stand against the rise of fascism with the defense of bourgeois democracy without questioning Germany’s place in the capitalist-imperialist system and the massacres, plunder and exploitation carried out all over the world with German money and weapons. Democracy actions that remind us of the republic actions in Turkey could not and cannot stand against the rise of fascism with the defense of bourgeois democracy without questioning Germany’s position in the capitalist-imperialist system and the massacres, plunder and exploitation carried out all over the world with German money and weapons.
- The AfD organized the anger of the masses, who were outraged by cuts in all social spheres due to the increasing war investments by the war-mongering that rose with the Ukraine war, directing their frustration toward anti-immigrant sentiment. In fact, even the previous generations of migrants and LGBTQ+ individuals, who are also targets of fascism, supported the AfD through Islamophobia against the Middle Eastern migrants who arrived after 2015. By its banners hung in every corner of the city, including in immigrant neighbourhoods, the AfD organised the resentment of the masses, especially those facing economic hardships, against immigrants, whom it targeted as the object of sin, instead of the capitalist-imperialist system, the main culprit. The stereotype of abusive migrant men was fueled, portraying them as obstacles to the freedom of women and LGBTQ+ individuals. The AfD prepared the ground towards fascism by organizing the discontent of the masses. However, the rise of the AfD would not have been possible without the support of the bourgeois factions behind it. The inability of bourgeois democratic rule to solve the multiple crises of the capitalist-imperialist system has brought the conflict within the bourgeois ruling classes in recent years to the point of disintegration. The energy crisis, especially after the war in Ukraine, Germany’s inability to compete with the rising Chinese imperialism in the renewable energy sector, and military investments against a possible attack by Russia have deepened the economic, environmental and political crisis.
- The political, economic, military and climate crises and mass migrations caused by capitalism-imperialism worldwide have melted the liberal glue that has held capitalist-imperialist societies in Europe together since 1945, and Germany is no exception to this situation. The rising fascism worldwide in recent years, along with Trump’s return to power, manifested in Germany through the rise of the AfD and the increasingly right-wing rhetoric of liberal democratic parties. In the face of all these contradictions, the choice of bourgeois circles to side with the fascist party, along with the alliance between Elon Musk and Alice Weidel, further boosted the AfD. The normalisation of the Hitler salute and the belittling of the Holocaust in both Germany and the USA brought about the normalisation of fascism through the alliance of American-German fascists and its ‘democratisation’ through elections. The normalization of the AfD and the inability of bourgeois democratic parties like the SPD and the Greens to move beyond fascist parameters, along with the Christian Democratic Party’s alignment with the AfD, pushed young people who desire a different world toward the struggle against fascism.
- Despite the shift to the right in society, the fact that some young people are in search of a way out —although this potential goes to the Left Party—is a reflection of a positive response. However, the turn towards the Left Party, which cannot offer a revolutionary solution within the bourgeois democratic framework, will not bring salvation. None of the existing parties represent a fundamental change in the system. The reason for this is that all of them defend German imperialism’s political, economic, and military interests, and therefore fail to provide solutions to the contradictions faced by society. The way out of these contradictions is possible only through the struggle of the progressive forces and the masses against the dominant role of Germany in the capitalist-imperialist system and for a real revolution led by the science of revolution to radically change this system.
- 24 February 2025
