Baden-Baden, GERMANY – Only a couple of days remain until Germany elects a new federal parliament, and I’m more worried than ever.
As a child of immigrants, I was born and raised here. I went to school here, graduated here and consider myself a German. I love German bread, complaining about our national train service and I consume a lot of German music and media.
It’s the place in the world I feel at home, and thus, I want my country to stay prosperous and especially tolerant.
Two of the parties seeking seats in Parliament, the AfD and Bündnis Sarah Wagenknecht, a newer party named for the politician Sarah Wagenknecht, are sympathetic to Russia and other anti-democratic governments such as Hungary and Italy.
That is why our upcoming elections are very worrying to me and to the immigrant community.
Our very own democracy is at stake, for the first time ever since World War II ended.
It’s nothing special anymore. No matter if one looks at France with the National Rally and Marine Le Pen, Argentina with Javier Millei or even the U.S. with Donald Trump and Elon Musk – the far-right is more powerful than ever and authoritarianism is once again considered a serious alternative to democracy in western societies.
But I never really thought about the possibility of right wing extremists gaining political power in my country, because most people here are aware of what extremists are capable of doing.
And while the German far-right national party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is becoming more and more successful in many surveys and even became the second biggest political party in the EU elections of 2024, the representatives of the democratic parties always promised not to work with them in any way.
But the conservative Christian Democratic Union broke that promise on January 29. Together with the Liberal Democratic Party and the AfD, they voted for a resolution to drastically reduce migration. This vote took place after a deadly knife attack in Bavaria perpetrated by a Afghan asylum seeker. A 2-year old child and a 41-year old man were killed in the attack.
Although this resolution is non-binding because it lacks the rule of law, the fact that the AfD was necessary to pass the resolution is worrying.
AfD was proven by the federal court of justice to be partly ultra-right nationalist, with popular party figures openly talking about “remigration,” meaning the deportation of millions of people with migratory background – no matter if they are German citizens or not.
And to make matters worse, a German investigative journalism group “Correctiv” proved in November 2023 that AfD’s party leaders have had contact with neo-nazis in the German-speaking area. These contacts, for example, included the group “Blood and Honor,” which operates worldwide.
The fact that the conservatives passed a resolution with the necessary aid of right-wing extremists caused an immense outrage in big parts of German society and more than 1 million people have since then demonstrated against the far-right.
This however does not change the fact that most likely after the next elections in a couple of days, the conservatives and the far-right populists will have a majority in Germany’s federal parliament.
Will our democracy be preserved?
While the chancellor candidate of the CDU, Friedrich Merz promised that, after the election, there will not be any collaboration or coalition with the AfD, the damage has been done.
The cordon sanitaire, meaning the unwritten law among democratic parties to not cooperate with right-wing extremists and anti-democrats has been broken in one of Germany’s most uncertain times.
As if an unsettling climate crisis, a security crisis due to a war in nearby Ukraine in direct proximity and an economic crisis were not enough, now millions of Germans – including me – fear a democracy crisis.
But it is not only internal threats that make me worry. Remember, Germany is the third biggest economy in the world, and the biggest within the European Union.
Since the beginning of the European Community in 1958, my country has been an integral part of this continent and profits a lot from trade with its neighbors, notably France and Poland.
Having right-wing extremists in power with a ‘Germany First’ mentality could lead to deteriorating relationships with our international partners, leading to economic problems, especially in the automotive industry, a lifeline for our economy.
The UK’s Brexit has already proven to us that protectionism in times of globalization is never a good idea. Wanting to weaken the European Union even further and abandoning the Euro as our national currency – as the AfD wishes – would be counterproductive.
Also, given that the rhetoric of the AfD can be best described as xenophobic, there is a chance that foreign skilled workers might feel unwelcome here. This would be disastrous for our country.
Due to our aging population, Germany is in desperate need of medical professionals, construction workers and IT professionals if we want to stay a global player and competitive economy.
In less than a week we will see whether Germany will stay a safe haven for roughly 25% of people with migratory backgrounds.
These are people who work here, pay taxes here and want to continue living in a prosperous and open-minded country – people like me.
Will my country keep on representing values like human rights, freedom and the rule of law, or will we return to one of the darkest times of German history?
Florian Gashi is a Junior Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
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