Steven Forti: "Many Germans from the former GDR feel like second-class citizens"

BarcelonaThe victory of Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt has shaken Europe, with the far-right having real options to gain power in a state for the first time since the fall of Nazism. The overwhelming ultra victory has arrived in the state of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), with economic and social indicators below those of West Germany more than 30 years after reunification. Germany is also not going through its best economic moment, with an engine that has lost power and a federal government that is trying to revive it through rearmament. We talk about the causes of the ultra victory with Steven Forti, professor of contemporary history at the UAB and expert in the far-right.

What reasons explain the AfD's victory in Saxony-Anhalt?

— There are causes that connect with the context of Saxony-Anhalt and Germany and others that are more general, European and global. The result is framed in a global context in which far-right forces have been advancing electorally for at least a decade, but we see a clear historical context here, such as the reunification process in Germany starting in 1990. After 30 years, regional divergences remain between the states of the GDR and West Germany. Full convergence has never been achieved and many feel like second-class citizens. This is an important fact because in other elections, such as the 2025 federal ones, AfD exceeded 40% in practically all the states of the former GDR. Another factor is the stagnation or slight economic recession that Germany has experienced in the last three years, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is paid for by the whole country, but especially by the eastern states, where there was already this feeling of being abandoned. There are also other elements, such as the government program of Friedrich Merz, heavily focused on rearmament, and the issue of immigration, which goes beyond Germany.

Beyond the influence of rearmament, what impact have the policies of the Merz government had on the elections?

— Their political line has a clearly neoliberal point of view, with a cutback to the social state. It proposes that rearmament be the springboard for the German economy to grow and, even, does so by breaking the taboo on debt. However, this will not allow the economy to grow, and with a situation of deficit and stagnation, some issues of the welfare state have been cut. It is a light, nuanced austerity, in the same line as what Keir Starmer was doing in the United Kingdom. There is clear unrest and resentment among the population, which is finding an outlet through forces that present themselves as anti-establishment. These are also territories that have suffered deindustrialization, as also happens in the French region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, which today is a stronghold of Le Pen.

Do you consider AfD to be a neo-Nazi party?

— There are leaders and militants who we can calmly define as neo-Nazis. However, I am skeptical about using the concept of fascism or Nazism to define these parties. Not only for AfD, but also in the case of Vox, Meloni, Le Pen, or Trump. In some cases, there may be an ideological substrate, ties more or less clear to what was the ideology and political culture of fascism, but I prefer to call them far-right. For me, saying far-right forces does not mean whitewashing them. Many times the term fascism has become a kind of insult to mobilize people, but just because they are undemocratic and authoritarian does not mean they are directly fascist. It may be so or it may not. However, saying they are far-right forces does not mean not considering them dangerous. I believe they are a threat to democratic values and to the very survival of liberal democracies.

The results have also confirmed a decline of the political center. Will it be increasingly common?

— Traditional parties are in a deep crisis. The SPD has improved slightly, but the CDU has lost half of its votes. It is a problem that goes beyond Saxony-Anhalt and Germany. There is an issue that connects with the crisis of political intermediation and also with the deep crisis of political projects, which is now reaching the traditional right. What proposals do the center-left and the center-right have? People have the feeling that things are going wrong, there are expectations that something will change, and they see that the policies being approved fail to change people's living conditions. In the case of the left, social democracy seems not to have understood that Blair's so-called Third Way was a profound error that distanced it from a large part of the working classes and lower middle classes who in many countries no longer vote for social democratic formations.