#germany election

[moonshinehan]

one in five people voted right wing extremist party gonna kms

[herpatrolllama]

Trump celebrates conservative party win in Germany

Read more

[casuallyodd]

Obviously, those in Germany know more, so if they have links, read them. But until then and for the US contingent, this article looks to give some good background.

Some article quotes below the cut

As part of an in-depth investigation of the forces shaping the rise of the far right in Germany, the documentary probes the story of influential AfD politician Björn Höcke. The former history teacher is on the brink of a potential election victory in the German state of Thuringia — and has been fined for using a Nazi slogan and accused of “whitewashing” Nazi crimes in Germany’s past.

“Björn Höcke is extraordinary within the AfD because he is really a quite old-fashioned, right-wing extremist,” Kai Arzheimer of Mainz University, a political extremism expert who has studied Höcke’s rhetoric, tells correspondent Evan Williams in the above excerpt. “He’s not just a radical. He’s not just opposed to immigration. He is really one who favors rewriting German history.”

As the excerpt explores, at a 2017 speech in the city of Dresden, Höcke criticized the Holocaust memorial in Germany’s capital, Berlin.

“We Germans — our people are the only people in the world to have planted a monument of shame in the heart of its capital,” Höcke said. “We need nothing less than a 180-degree turnaround in the politics of remembrance.”

Germany’s remembrance culture, Arzheimer says, “is the idea that the crimes of the Nazis must never be forgotten, and that we should educate future generations in the knowledge that Germany in the past has committed those atrocities, to safeguard our future.”

Höcke, Arzheimer says, wants a “reversal” of this policy — and “is engaged in whitewashing what the Nazis did.”

today a fascist won an election for the first time since 1933. here, in germany.

i don't care if it's just one (out of 16) states. björn höcke is a fascist. a court decided not long ago that it's allowed to call him a nazi. bc he is one. not "far right" or "conservative" - he is a nazi.

here. in germany. and he just won an election.

it hasn't even been 100 years.

i am scared.

[munaeem]

What’s Going On with Germany’s Vote—and What It Means for Us?

last weekend, something pretty big happened in Germany—20% of people voted for a far-right party that some are calling fascist. Yikes, right? It sounds scary, and honestly, it’s got a lot of folks worried. But before we hit the panic button, let’s take a closer look at what’s really going on. It’s not all doom and gloom. There’s a bigger story here that might even make us think about our own…

[cksonjoy]

see video

German election results live: CDU’s Friedrich Merz claims win, AfD second

[reasonsforhope]

"With Donald Trump set to take office after a fear-mongering campaign that reignited concerns about his desire to become a dictator, a reasonable question comes up: Can nonviolent struggle defeat a tyrant?

There are many great resources that answer this question, but the one that’s been on my mind lately is the Global Nonviolent Action Database, or GNAD, built by the Peace Studies department at Swarthmore College. Freely accessible to the public, this database — which launched under my direction in 2011 — contains over 1,400 cases of nonviolent struggle from over a hundred countries, with more cases continually being added by student researchers.  

At quick glance, the database details at least 40 cases of dictators who were overthrown by the use of nonviolent struggle, dating back to 1920. These cases — which include some of the largest nations in the world, spanning Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America — contradict the widespread assumption that a dictator can only be overcome by violence. What’s more, in each of these cases, the dictator had the desire to stay, and possessed violent means for defense. Ultimately, though, they just couldn’t overcome the power of mass nonviolent struggle.  

In a number of countries, the dictator had been embedded for years at the time they were pushed out. Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, for example, had ruled for over 29 years. In the 1990s, citizens usually whispered his name for fear of reprisal. Mubarak legalized a “state of emergency,” which meant censorship, expanded police powers and limits on the news media. Later, he “loosened” his rule, putting only 10 times as many police as the number of protesters at each demonstration.  

The GNAD case study describes how Egyptians grew their democracy movement despite repression, and finally won in 2011. However, gaining a measure of freedom doesn’t guarantee keeping it. As Egypt has shown in the years since, continued vigilance is needed, as is pro-active campaigning to deepen the degree of freedom won.  

Some countries repeated the feat of nonviolently deposing a ruler: In Chile, the people nonviolently threw out a dictator in 1931 and then deposed a new dictator in 1988. South Koreans also did it twice, once in 1960 and again in 1987. (They also just stopped their current president from seizing dictatorial powers, but that’s not yet in the database.)  

In each case people had to act without knowing what the reprisals would be...

It’s striking that in many of the cases I looked at, the movement avoided merely symbolic marches and rallies and instead focused on tactics that impose a cost on the regime. As Donald Trump wrestles to bring the armed forces under his control, for example, I can imagine picketing army recruiting offices with signs, “Don’t join a dictator’s army.”  

Another important takeaway: Occasional actions that simply protest a particular policy or egregious action aren’t enough. They may relieve an individual’s conscience for a moment, but, ultimately, episodic actions, even large ones, don’t assert enough power. Over and over, the Global Nonviolent Action Database shows that positive results come from a series of escalating, connected actions called a campaign...

-via Waging Nonviolence, January 8, 2025. Article continues below.

East Germany’s peaceful revolution

When East Germans began their revolt against the German Democratic Republic in 1988, they knew that their dictatorship of 43 years was backed by the Soviet Union, which might stage a deadly invasion. They nevertheless acted for freedom, which they gained and kept.

Researcher Hanna King tells us that East Germans began their successful campaign in January 1988 by taking a traditional annual memorial march and turning it into a full-scale demonstration for human rights and democracy. They followed up by taking advantage of a weekly prayer for peace at a church in Leipzig to organize rallies and protests. Lutheran pastors helped protect the organizers from retaliation and groups in other cities began to stage their own “Monday night demonstrations.”  

The few hundred initial protesters quickly became 70,000, then 120,000, then 320,000, all participating in the weekly demonstrations. Organizers published a pamphlet outlining their vision for a unified German democracy and turned it into a petition. Prisoners of conscience began hunger strikes in solidarity.

By November 1988, a million people gathered in East Berlin, chanting, singing and waving banners calling for the dictatorship’s end. The government, hoping to ease the pressure, announced the opening of the border to West Germany. Citizens took sledgehammers to the hated Berlin Wall and broke it down. Political officials resigned to protest the continued rigidity of the ruling party and the party itself disintegrated. By March 1990 — a bit over two years after the campaign was launched — the first multi-party, democratic elections were held.

Students lead the way in Pakistan

In Pakistan, it was university students (rather than religious clerics) who launched the 1968-69 uprising that forced Ayub Khan out of office after his decade as a dictator. Case researcher Aileen Eisenberg tells us that the campaign later required multiple sectors of society to join together to achieve critical mass, especially workers. 

It was the students, though, who took the initiative — and the initial risks. In 1968, they declared that the government’s declaration of a “decade of development” was a fraud, protesting nonviolently in major cities. They sang and marched to their own song called “The Decade of Sadness.” 

Police opened fire on one of the demonstrations, killing several students. In reaction the movement expanded, in numbers and demands. Boycotts grew, with masses of people refusing to pay the bus and railway fares on the government-run transportation system. Industrial workers joined the movement and practiced encirclement of factories and mills. An escalation of government repression followed, including more killings. 

As the campaign expanded from urban to rural parts of Pakistan, the movement’s songs and political theater thrived. Khan responded with more violence, which intensified the determination among a critical mass of Pakistanis that it was time for him to go.

After months of growing direct action met by repressive violence, the army decided its own reputation was being degraded by their orders from the president, and they demanded his resignation. He complied and an election was scheduled for 1970 — the first since Pakistan’s independence in 1947.

Why use nonviolent struggle?

The campaigns in East Germany and Pakistan are typical of all 40 cases in their lack of a pacifist ideology, although some individuals active in the movements had that foundation. What the cases do seem to have in common is that the organizers saw the strategic value of nonviolent action, since they were up against an opponent likely to use violent repression. Their commitment to nonviolence would then rally the masses to their side. 

That encourages me. There’s hardly time in the U.S. during Trump’s regime to convert enough people to an ideological commitment to nonviolence, but there is time to persuade people of the strategic value of a nonviolent discipline. 

It’s striking that in many of the cases I looked at, the movement avoided merely symbolic marches and rallies and instead focused on tactics that impose a cost on the regime. As Donald Trump wrestles to bring the armed forces under his control, for example, I can imagine picketing army recruiting offices with signs, “Don’t join a dictator’s army.”  

Another important takeaway: Occasional actions that simply protest a particular policy or egregious action aren’t enough. They may relieve an individual’s conscience for a moment, but, ultimately, episodic actions, even large ones, don’t assert enough power. Over and over, the Global Nonviolent Action Database shows that positive results come from a series of escalating, connected actions called a campaign — the importance of which is also outlined in my book “How We Win.”  

As research seminar students at Swarthmore continue to wade through history finding new cases, they are digging up details on struggles that go beyond democracy. The 1,400 already-published cases include campaigns for furthering environmental justice, racial and economic justice, and more. They are a resource for tactical ideas and strategy considerations, encouraging us to remember that even long-established dictators have been stopped by the power of nonviolent campaigns.

-via Waging Nonviolence, January 8, 2025.

[thearwenschild]

The Far Right is Rising in the Land of ‘Never Again’

Jan Böhmermann talks about the upcoming elections, the rise of the far-right Afd, and how a country can deal with our history and how we can never let it happen again.

[xxgwenstacyxx]

y'all...

[alpaca-clouds]

Updating the stuff for the German election. As noted: The Left Wing party is the strongest party among the youngest voters. However, our Nazis from the AfD are the second strongest. And looking into the exit polls by gender, it shows this:

Basically, the left wing party is so strong because of young women, but the AfD Nazis are so strong because of the young men.

And thinking of some of the studies I have read on BlueSky I cannot help but think about how young men do not want to go to university because that is a "girl thing". Just as those studies also found that it is not that "universities make you left wing", but rather "left wing people are more likely to go to university".

And of course we kinda know why this is. Because young boys spend too much time listening to those Joe Rogans, and Andrew Tates and what not. But I really kinda wonder how the fuck one can reach those kids.

I mean, we know also that those right wing and toxic masculinity shit stuff makes men unhappy. Because they are being told they need to reach this one ideal, that right now is pretty much impossible for them to reach.

Yeah, I don't know. This specifically sucks, man.

[jasondamien93]

[destiel-news-brodcast]

EDIT : IVE BEEN INFORMED THAT THE FIRST PART OF THIS POST IS INCORRECT APOLOGIES FOR THE MISINFORMATION and further apologies for not updating sooner i have been ill and offline for weeks

[darkfighterofblackshadowdeath]

Elon Musk needs to go play on some train tracks. That asshole is trying to get his grimy hands into the German elections next.

He's had too much influence in German politics already (looking at you Brandenburg). I don't want him to buy votes for the AfD. Actually I don't want him to talk or even think about any elections anywhere ever (again). Motherfucker needs to Starship without damaging our atmosphere.

[munaeem]

What to expect from Germany's migration policy after federal elections

As Germany heads to the polls this Sunday, migration has emerged as a defining issue in the election campaign. With around 60 million eligible voters, a significant majority are calling for stricter policies to curb irregular migration. This demand follows a series of high-profile attacks by individuals with a migration background. Some of these individuals should have already been deported.…

[isitandwonder]

[dead-salmon]

why are we doing a 1938 speedrun again

[the-only-hope-for-me-is-coffee]

america centered ass website. europe goes downhill and noone even knows about it on here. anyway fuck afd and fuck everyone who voted against democracy in the european parliament elections.