In Germany, the wall persists

BerlinOne of the most shared maps the day after the elections in Germany is the one showing the division between East and West Germany. The far right was by far the most popular force in the five federal states of the former communist republic (GDR), while the conservative CDU party won in the regions that were divided up between the Americans, the British and the French after the Second World War and that declared themselves a sovereign state in 1955. Thirty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, with the highest turnout since reunification (83.5%), the gap has not faded. The blue and black map shows how different the two German states are, despite efforts to reduce the differences.

Since he was born in 2023, AfD has grown much faster in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia than in the western federal states. That is why some say that the wall will be raised again in 2025 rather than completely collapsed.

The reason why Germans on both sides vote so differently is immediately clear if we look at the economic differences between the two sides. If you put indicators such as income or unemployment on the map, the invisible wall that still runs through the country becomes clear. The east of the country is where the oldest population is found, there is more youth unemployment, less immigration and the lowest incomes.

Anna-Sophie Heinze, a political scientist at the University of Trier, explains to ARA that the AfD has found in the discontent of the citizens of the east a breeding ground that has allowed it to grow exponentially: "They have known how to take advantage of the crises and the frustrations that they bring." In 2015 they began to grow with the arrival of Syrian refugees, then with the discontent over the management of the pandemic and then with the war in Ukraine. During this campaign their anti-immigration message has been amplified, but they have also put the focus on economic problems. "She has returned to her initial anti-European rhetoric, calling for Germany to leave the European Union and the euro, after having put it aside for a while," Heinze said.

Emboldened after becoming the second force in the Bundestag, Alice Weidel said that the AfD is a "Volkspartei". A term that is usually used to refer to the SPD and the CDU, the two traditional big parties, which target voters from different social groups and not just a specific segment of society. In addition, AfD has been by far the preferred choice of the working class and won with around 25% of the Lautern.Volkspartei"Everywhere, but in the east for sure.

Support from young people

Like the Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria, the AfD has a strong voter base in the eastern villages. "Do you realize how many thousands of abstentionists we have managed to mobilize?" AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla praised himself on Monday. In these eastern regions, too, the under-25s have largely opted for the far right. "Young people have grown up in environments where it is normal to vote for the AfD," says Heinze.

Beyond the AfD, a closer look at the results confirms the persistence of the division between the two German regions. The eastern regions are the only ones where the second most voted party is the left-wing party, Die Linke. A party that has its roots in the Socialist Unity Party of Germany that ruled the GDR with an iron fist.

A long-time member of Die Linke founded the left-wing populist party Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which is also a very unique phenomenon in the east, where it has achieved results well above average. BSW will not enter the Bundestag because it fell just a few tenths short of the minimum required, but it has accumulated almost 10% of the vote there. In this part of the country, as was already clear in the regional elections in the autumn, the parties at the extremes are the most popular.

Second-class citizen sentiment

Katja Hoyer, a historian specializing in East Germany, is the author of the book Beyond the Wall, explained to X that beyond the economic, other factors must be taken into account to understand the differences among voters in the east, such as "fear, affinity for Russia and the lack of ties to traditional parties." Since reunification, voters in the east have often felt like second-class citizens. Everything connected with the communist era is often demonized and there is still little representation from this part of the country in positions of power. Angela Merkel was an exception, but there are still few politicians at the top who come from the east.

The wall has not just fallen in Berlin either. In the city that was divided for 28 years, from 1961 to 1989, a symbol of the Cold War, citizens from every corner vote in the same way either. Right-wing parties are stronger in the west and left-wing parties in the east.

There are more voters in North Rhine-Westphalia than in all the eastern states combined, but finding ways to appeal to them all is still a challenge for both traditional and new parties.