German political center struggles as AfD and Die Linke gain ground

Merz calls AfD ‘remigration’ platform ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Bundestag

BERLIN — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right Christian Democrats were trounced in the Berlin city election and suffered their worst-ever result in a separate state election held the same day, with the far-right Alternative for Germany and the far-left Die Linke both gaining ground in votes that left the political center struggling to assemble viable governing majorities.

Minutes after the exit polls were announced, Merz said “trust in state institutions is declining” and that “radical parties on both the left and the right are exploiting this.” Merz’s conservatives govern in coalition with the center-left Social Democrats, two parties that used to be big-tent rivals with significantly different political positions. They now rely on each other for increasingly slim Bundestag majorities, and governing together has made the parties appear less distinguishable to voters.

Pensioner Ute Istock, picking up her weekly shopping at one of Berlin’s markets, said she voted for the far-left Die Linke for the first time because she feels the centrist parties are out of touch. “Voters no longer feel represented by the political center,” Istock said. “This is why we’re voting in such a confrontational way.” Comparing the variety of apple varieties on offer at the market to the breadth of candidates on the recent ballot sheets, she quipped that “this is not necessarily a good thing.”

Istock acknowledged that the confrontational voting sits uncomfortably with her and other German voters, because the combination of increasing political fragmentation, unstable coalitions and a dire economy echoes a past that led to the rise of fascism almost a century ago. She also said “voting has become tricky” because it is no longer clear how a party will end up governing effectively, given the proliferation of parties and the difficulty of forming viable majorities.

Inside parliament, Matthias Mirsch, a prominent Social Democrat, complained about the reductive nature of contemporary political debate. Speaking after the AfD’s landslide victory in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mirsch said: “It’s damn difficult to govern in these times, where things quickly boil down to yes or no, black or white, and the middle ground doesn’t count.”

Berlin-based communications adviser Maximilian Flügge attributed the narrowing of debate in part to the medium carrying political messages. “Algorithms are simply not made for the political center,” he said. “Algorithms are trained to promote outrage. The political center relies on nuance and compromise — neither of which goes viral on social media.”

Flügge also criticized Merz’s centrist government for being too negative in its messaging about its reform agenda, which he said stood in stark contrast to the far-right AfD, which promises voters that “everything is possible!” Despite his party’s recent electoral defeats, Merz has remained defiant amid speculation that he might be replaced, saying he will press ahead with the tax and welfare reforms he argues are needed to jumpstart Germany’s economy. Merz has admitted that citing statistics alone won’t sell the agenda. “We must try — I myself included — to reach people on an emotional level,” he told journalists at a recent press conference.

The AfD’s vision includes a policy the party calls “remigration,” which advocates deporting people on a massive scale, including immigrants with German citizenship. In the Bundestag, Merz told lawmakers: “The word ‘remigration’ is nothing more than a synonym for ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin color.” The remark drew applause from mainstream lawmakers and jeers from the AfD’s sizable opposition bloc.

The AfD’s parliamentary leader, Alice Weidel, now claims that it is the AfD that is Germany’s new big tent party. Merz, despite speculation that he could be replaced, has insisted he will press ahead with his reform agenda. The combination of the Berlin city election and the separate state vote on the same day produced losses for the CDU in both contests while the AfD and Die Linke each gained.