Decades after the unification of Germany , the rise of extremist parties has divided the country once again, leaving the left-leaning capital surrounded by a sea of far-right supporters. The centre-right Christian Democratic Union CDU , which recently courted controversy for using AfD votes to push a proposal through the Bundestag on tougher migration policy, came first with By contrast, in the west they won just two states: Gelsenkirchen near Dusseldorf, and Kaiserslautern towards the border with France, both by a thin margin over the CDU.
The CDU nonetheless won a large share of the rest of the western states. The country is now one of two halves: the blue of AfD in the east and the black of the CDU in the west. The division is strikingly similar to the picture in the post-war years of East and West Germany. The rise of AfD, analysts say, comes down to a perception in the eastern half that reunification failed to bring about economic prosperity.
They feel really afraid. I feel that, too. Jivee, 25, who moved to Berlin from Ireland during the coronavirus pandemic, says he feels less safe because he is of Asian heritage, though he adds that he feels at home in the capital.
At a rally in the central-eastern state of Thuringia on Saturday, where AfD would secure its most significant victory on Sunday, winning Doris, 61, says she has lived her whole life in Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, where the rally is being held, but now she is too scared to go into the city at certain times. And they have knives, weapons. The police often are there and just look on. She cites three terror attacks in the last three months — in the eastern city of Magdeburg in December, the southern city of Aschaffenburg in January, and Munich in February, all of which were committed by people not born in Germany — as evidence of the reality of the threat.
She makes no mention of crimes committed by German-born criminals. She says she was proud to vote for the Thuringia branch of AfD, despite it having been designated as extremist in for xenophobia. Die Linke, which translates to The Left, benefited from an unexpected show of support on Sunday, defying expectations to achieve 8.
