Elections in Germany: the extreme right to conquer the West

Of our special return of Rhineland-du-Nord-Westphalie,

A small platform, four banners, a few eaters and that’s about it. If there was the sound system that screams upholstered music, you could almost miss it. This Saturday morning, at the time of shopping, The alternative for Germany holds a meeting in downtown Moers. For the occasion, Knuth Meyer-Soltau has styled his most beautiful cap: a petting red and a slogan-“Make Germany Great Again”-who slams like the slap which he threatened to flank an ecological elected official four days earlier. Impudent had called AFD deputies ” Nazis During a round table to which they were both invited; The candidate for the constituency 139 had not appreciated.

“” It can’t continue like this “, He now hammers at the microphone. It is about immigration. The far -right party has managed to place its favorite subject at the center of the electoral campaign, well helped by attacks linked to foreigners who have multiplied in recent months. Each training goes there with its proposals. That of the AFD holds in four syllables: “remigration”. Largely taboo a year ago, the word is now perfectly assumed. “” This means the referral of all violent and not integrated people », Enlighten Daniel Zerbin, member of the Parliament of Rhineland-of-Nord-Westphalia and candidate for Herne. Not integrated? “” Those who do not respect our principles: equality of women/men, the law greater than religion … »»

Read too“I have always tried to integrate myself”: Khallof al-mohamad, a German story

“” This is a sign that is wrong, right? »»

The event did not move the crowds. At least not on this side of the street. They are only a big hundred in front of the scene, all straight, as frozen by the cold. Ernst, 58, BMW cap to the eyebrows and parka to the chin, came with the family to get an idea. It is not sure to vote AFD, but does not exclude it either. In any case, he expects from the future government that he ” recovery The country and stops taxing pensions. He worries: ” When you see the elderly forced to collect the recorded bottles in the street, this is a sign that it is bad, right? »»

Ernst, however, claims to have nothing against immigrants, ” as long as they work and pay their taxes ». “” But those who believe they are in a country of cocagne and who live here at our expense … At one point, it’s okay. “His son Matthias embraces a learned tone:” When you settle in a country, you have to adapt to it. Not change, adapt. And above all pay your taxes or look for work. But integration is a collective approach, continues the young man. “” It is also our responsibility. It is also up to us to take them by the hand. This is how we form a society. »»

On the opposite sidewalk, we suddenly start to chant: ” Nazis, outside! Nazis, outside! Some 600 people are massaged there, under the supervision of a handful of police officers and well -felt slogans. Louis, loop in colorful noses and nails, is not yet the age of voting, but he wanted to demonstrate ” Before it is too late ». “” If we let them continue, we will meet here in five years saying: “If only we had done something to prevent it” “. Nina has been twenty minutes from Oberhausen for the same reasons. She too fears to see Germany slide in turn to the far right. “” You have to lay the groundwork now She believes.

In the breach

The quadra at the rainbow outfit has something to be alarmed. Twelve years after its creation, AFD is gaining ground with each ballot. After spraying the scores during the summer elections in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringit stands out as a second political force on a national scale, just behind the conservatives of the CDU/CSU. Above all, its popularity now extends beyond the disaster regions of the old RDA. In the very prosperous Bavaria and Baden-Wurtemberg, it is given in second position. She is third in Rhineland-Palatinate and Fourth in Rhineland-of-Nord-Westphalia, where polls place her at 15%, a leap of eight points compared to the 2021 elections.

“” In Rhineland-of-Nord-Westphalia, AFD has rushed into the void left by the Social Democratic Party “Notes Volker Kronenberg, professor at the Institute of Political Science and Sociology at Bonn University. He explains: over the past twenty years, the SPD has gradually abandoned the working-class world to turn to civil servants, intellectuals and urban young people, focusing on subjects hitherto defended by the Greens. A strategic choice which has proven to be disastrous, in particular in the industrial region of Ruhr, where the energy transition and the economic decline, added to the challenges of immigration, have caused a deep feeling of insecurity within the population . “” AFD has perfectly exploited these concerns », Note Volker Kronenberg.

Read tooCoal exit: in Germany, the challenges of an in full change region

Alice Weidel’s party Beautifully multiply, let one of his leaders praise Nazism or choose a slogan inspired by the Third Reich, nothing seems to slow down his progression. In Rhineland-du-Nord-Westphalia, we are still far from the tidal wave observed in the east. “” The region, and the west in general, is not a bastion of the AFD. The major university cities such as Bonn, Münster or Cologne are not AFD bastions », Insists Volker Kronenberg. To qualify immediately: ” Regarding the cities of the Ruhr, like Gelsenkirchen or Duisbourg, it is different. »»

“” Worse in worse »»

Duisburg, 500,000 inhabitants, including almost a quarter of foreign nationality, displays a gloomy air. And it’s not just because of its charming streets. The city which was briefly the richest in Germany in the 1950s today lists 12% unemployed, more than double the national average. It is especially crime that worries. If it only increased by 3% in 2023, homicides, rapes and stabbing aggressions increased sharply. However, it is these violent various facts that mark the spirits.

“” It started five years ago and it’s worse in worse », Upstairs Frauke Pilarek deplores. In the dining room of her downtown apartment, the teacher scrolls press articles on her mobile phone to support her. Radio Duisbourg, February 3, 2025: a man stabbed to death by a German-Moroccan. SpiegelApril 28, 2023: A 26 -year -old Syrian suspected of having attacked five people with a knife in the space of ten days in Duisbourg. Rheinische PostOctober 31, 2023: a young man admits having stabbed his mother who mistreated him. Frauke still can’t believe it. “” It happened just at the bottom of my house! »»

When she surprised herself one day to change the sidewalk when she saw arriving ” A group of Syrians “, Frauke wondered what was not going round at home. “” It is so contrary to my education and my Christian values. “She observed the same change in her 17 -year -old son, a boy” mature, open -minded ». “” I know he’s a good person. And yet, sometimes, when he returns, he says to me: “In the street, I was the only one to speak German”. My son is wary and I find it a shame. »»

Balance power relations

Frauke speaks of a fear ” irrational ». A fear, she said, that AFD ” knows perfectly instrumentalize ». She thought about the question for a long time. “” People who are not aware of this manipulation can easily fall into the extreme right trap. As Germany and the region are going worse, people tend to turn to parties that offer apparently easy solutions. »»

100 km away, seated in a Bonn coffee, Wolfgang Truckenbrodt pleads ” not guilty ». “” We impose ourselves by the facts “, He assures in a perfect French, inherited from a diplomat father. His father, says the septuagenarian in a kind tone, was one of those who, in the aftermath of the Second World War, traveled Europe to bring workers to Germany. Man with imposing physique, small mustache and shaved skull, in turn demands an immigration ” chosen ».

At 72, including twenty spent in the ranks of the CDU, he embodies this wing of AFD more turned to Trump America that Putin’s Russia and which considers the radicality of its eastern counterparts of an disapproving eye. Victories to the west would balance the balance of power within the party, he believes. In a district populated by students, Wolfgang Truckenbrodt recognizes for his part having no chance. Four years ago, he obtained 3% of the votes in local elections. This time he would be ” fairly satisfied If he ended at 10%.