Elections in Eastern Germany 9-1-19

Some quotes: "Under Communism, the party called the shots, she said. Now the market does. “I’ve come to realize that everything they taught us about capitalism all those years ago is true,” Ms. Sonntag [East German restaurant owner] said. “Politics is just for show. Money rules.”
"In his village, four in 10 people vote for the AfD. Calling them extremists is not helpful, he said. “On the state and national level they are extremists,” he said. “On the local level, they are often citizens who no longer feel represented.”-Social Democratic mayor of small East German village."

The people of the former East Germany feel left behind after West German capitalism took over and left them unemployed and impoverished -- after having stirred them up to overthrow their socialist government with promises of riches and a better future -- many now feel betrayed. The choice between Barbarism or Socialism is clear as the fascist AfD Party is growing in strength in Eastern Germany feeding off of the desolation left behind by the capitalist overthrow of socialism. These disaffected citizens were originally attracted to Die Linke (the reincarnation of the former Socialist Unity Party that ran the communist German Democratic Republic -DDR] but have been defecting lately to the AfD, perhaps in part because Die Linke has been joining with the fake socialists running the SPD ( Social Democratic Party of Germany). The vast majority of East Germans do not support the AfD at this time but they split their votes between Die Linke, the SPD and the Christian Democrats (Merkel) meaning the AfD is on the road to getting the most votes in the elections today (9-1-19) in Brandenburg and Saxony -- two former DDR areas. Anti-immigrant racism is one of the driving forces leftover from Nazism propelling the popularity of the AfD -- the same kind of racism that drives Trump's base as well proving that the fight against racism must be one of the central pillars of any progressive movement along with the demand for a transition to socialism -- these two demands should be clearly enunciated as the demands any socialist group supports when it enters into a Center-Left coalition -- the antiracism demand should be unconditional but, since other coalition partners are not calling for socialism we socialists can't make this an unconditional demand but only make it known that we favor socialism as the solution to the problems of Trumpism and US imperialism in general.

NYTIMES.COM

German Elections Reveal, and Deepen, a New East-West Divide

Two key votes this weekend are expected to produce an advance for the far right, and add to a growing sense of legitimacy in the former Communist East.